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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Aug. 13 In what could muddle the third generation mobile roll out in the country, the Ministry of Finance is understood to have told the Department of Telecom that it should go ahead with implementing the recently announced guidelines only after consulting with the Ministry since the policy had financial implications.

Officials in the Finance Ministry said since the 3G policy contained clauses with financial implications such as determination of the spectrum acquisition price and reserve price for auction, fixation of spectrum usage charges and penalties for hoarding of spectrum, it is mandatory for DoT to consult with the Ministry.

They said the Transaction of Business Rules 1981 prescribed mandatory consultation with the Ministry of Finance as a pre-condition in respect of all issues which have issues which have financial implications. They added that the Union cabinet, in its meeting on October 2003 had decided that spectrum pricing would need to be decided mutually between DoT and MoF to ensure efficient usage of spectrum.

However, DoT officials said the Communications Ministry had several rounds of meeting with the Ministry of Finance before announcing the 3G policy guidelines. They said that it was at the insistence of the Finance Ministry that the base price and the spectrum charges were revised upwards. DoT officials said that stiff penalties for not fulfilling the roll-out obligations have also been imposed to ensure that no operator hoards spectrum.

Earlier the telecom regulator had also raised concerns with some aspects of the policy. TRAI had said DoT should conduct auction for CDMA players also to ensure level playing field.

TRAI has also sought to have a say in fixing the terms and conditions for allowing new players in the 3G space.

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