“A massive telecom scam of Rs 45,000 crore is being buried under the carpet by the Modi Govt, who talk of transparency,” said Surjewala. “A massive telecom scam of Rs 45,000 crore is being buried under the carpet by the Modi Govt, who talk of transparency,” said Surjewala.

The Congress on Thursday accused the Modi government of burying “under the carpet a massive telecom scam of Rs 45,000 crore.”

At a press conference in the national capital, Congress leader RS Surjewala said the scam aims to help Modi Govt’s industrialists friends.

“Latest is a staggering ‘Telecom Scam’ of approximately Rs.45,000 crore plus that is being buried under the carpet by ‘Modi Sarkar’,” party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala alleged at a joint press conference with party spokespersons Shaktisinh Gohil and R P N Singh.

READ: BJP denies Congress charge of ‘telecom scam’, says will recover dues with penalty

He alleged that the government is “surreptitiously taking steps to protect the interests of six leading telecom companies by helping them avoid the payment of charges rightfully owed to the government.”

He claimed that this is a clear-cut case of loss to the public exchequer verified by the CAG “with the sole aim of helping friendly ‘crony capitalists’. The telecom companies named by Surjewala are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Idea, Tata and Aircel.

The Congress leaders said that the CAG initiated an audit of the six telecom companies for four years from 2006-07 to 2009-10 at the instructions of the Congress-led UPA government. It specifically looked at underreporting of income and non-uniform method of accounting adopted by various telecom companies and consequent lack of obligation to pay outstanding licence fee and Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC).

“PM Modi who used to say ‘na khaoonga, na khaane doonga’ yet again proved to be another false promise. This telecom scam is worth Rs. 45,000 crore and aims to help Modi Govt’s industrialists friends,” said the Congress leader.

In Opp, BJP made notional loss a corruption issue. What are they doing to recover actual loss.This is breach of public trust: @rssurjewala — INC India (@INCIndia) July 7, 2016

Why is Modi Govt not upholding findings of the CAG now, instead of stalling recovery of money: @rssurjewala — INC India (@INCIndia) July 7, 2016

Who benefits & why? Why is Modi govt maintaining a conspicuous silence: @rssurjewala — INC India (@INCIndia) July 7, 2016

In its report submitted this year, the CAG found an alleged understatement/underreporting of income by the six companies of Rs.46,045.75 crore in the four years.

“Resultantly, the CAG found that there was an amount of Rs.12,488.93 crore, which remains un-recovered by the government. This does not include penalty, if any, and other relevant taxes.”, Surjewala said.

He said that although there has been considerable increase in business, consumer base and income, even if loss of exchequer is calculated on the same formula for the years 2010-11 to 2015-16, this figure would be Rs.45,000 crore plus.

“Instead of immediately acting on these shocking and startling revelations reflecting serious loss to public exchequer, Modi government has opted for an alternative re-evaluation of these figures by Telecom Ministry through Chartered Accountants who are empanelled with them”, Surjewala said.

Surjewala claimed that firstly this is a clear methodology of Modi government to “inordinately delay” the process of recovery for years together, if not, writing it off entirely.

Secondly, it reflects the apparent “mal-intent” of the government to “dilute or diminish” the figures put forth by the CAG, he charged.

Raising a number of questions, he wondered whether it is a “grotesque breach of public trust” by BJP-led government, which, in the past, had made a notional loss pegged by CAG in 2g spectrum allocation case a major issue of corruption.

Asking about the government plans to recover ‘actual losses’, he wondered whether government is acting as a “willful collaborator” with the select corporate entities in artfully dodging recovery of massive sums of money. Is it a new way to minimize fiscal deficit”? he said sarcastically.

“Why is Modi government maintaining a conspicuous silence on the matter becoming virtually comatose despite the mammoth size of financial sums involved?”, he said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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