The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has blamed cartelisation by telecom companies for the failure of the recent auction of telecom spectrum and accused the government of inaction and lax implementation.
CAG in a note to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said cartelisation by telecom firms in the last two auctions had resulted in spectrum valued at thousands of crores being wasted.
It accused the government of wittingly or unwittingly aiding and abetting companies by not acting against them.
DG (Audit) Post and Telecommunications, a unit of CAG, said, “Apparent cartelisation by the telecom service providers observed recently in the last two spectrum auctions… have already cost the government very dearly” as tranches of spectrum valued at hundreds of billions of rupees were left unsold.