Ministry tries new tack on Evergrowth

Ministry tries new tack on Evergrowth
Sunil Jain

New Delhi, Aug 26: With the bureaucrats in the telecom ministry and even Attorney General Soli Sorabjee vociferously vetoing any possible extension in the cellular license for the Punjab circle to M/s JT Mobile (a.k.a. Evergrowth Telecom) over the past few months, a new strategy is being worked on to rescue the beleagured firm.

Based on some detailed arguments by his deputy Tapan Sikdar, telecom minister Ram Vilas Paswan has now ordered that the defaulter company's license be restored immediately. On Thursday, Paswan ruled that while either the Law Ministry or the Attorney General be consulted on the matter, `this may, however, take some time', and so the restoration should be done immediately, and that JT be allowed to migrate to the new revenue-sharing formula under the New Telecom Policy.

But didn't the Attorney General already give his opinion on the matter on March 31, and didn't he say that JT Mobiles case was a weak one? JT had been arguing, till then, that they did not have to pay Rs 218 crore of its total license fee dues of Rs 415 crore, as their license had wrongfully been terminated for a period of 693 days.

Yes, Sorabjee had argued that JT had no case. He argued that JT's license had never been terminated, and that JT had not been allowed to operate its license for those 693 days between December 12, 1996 and March 10, 1998 only due to the fact that they could not pay their license fees. And it was based on this opinion of Sorabjee that, despite both Sikdar and Paswan's pressure, the telecom ministry's bureaucrats refused to allow restoration of JT's license all of last month -- Sikdar and Paswan were of the view that the `disputed' period's license fee be kept in abeyance, and the company be allowed to resume operations.

With both Sikdar and Paswan of the view that the bureaucrats were wrong and that the Cabinet should decide on the matter, a Cabinet note was also prepared on the case last month. But since that Cabinet note said that giving concessions to JT was against what the Attorney General had ruled, and would lead to other telecom operators asking for their cases to be re-opened, Paswan is now of the opinion that going to the Cabinet will solve nothing.

According to Sikdar's new arguments, which is what Paswan has based his latest orders upon, the Attorney General's advise does not hold any more as it is possible that he had been incorrectly briefed by the bureaucrats in the telecom ministry. According to Sikdar, Sorabjee had based his comments on the premise that JT Mobiles had not complied with the conditions laid out by the Department of Telecom -- this premise itself, Sikdar has argued, is not correct, and should be re-looked at.

It remains to be seen what the Attorney General's view will be, if the file is sent to him -- Paswan has said that it could be sent either to Sorabjee or to the Law Ministry -- because Sorabjee had dealt with precisely this issue in his first ruling. When JT Mobile had contended that it's license had been terminated for so-called violation of tender conditions, Sorabjee had opined that the JT had simply not been allowed to operate its license, and this was only because it had not paid the requisite license fees.

Clearly, a whole series of jockeying has begun in the telecom ministry all over again -- like JT, even Koshika Telecom is trying to have its cellular licenses revived in anticipation of being able to sell these for a premium. Watch this space!