Amitav Ranjan

Under pressure from the Opposition and the Supreme Court on the 2G scam, the government plans to usher transparency in all purchases and contracts whereby all asset sales and PPP tenders above Rs 100 crore would be conducted via e-auction.

Sources said that a proposal is being prepared for first-stage clearance by a Committee of Secretaries to extend the “application of 3G spectrum auction methodology for other sectors, except for roads and highways”.

Nine firms participated in the online auction for 3G licences that ended after 34 days and 183 rounds of bidding last May. It fetched the government Rs 67,718.95 cr; however, the method was not given credence until days after the CAG report surfaced in the Supreme Court.

It was first pushed by the ministry only on October 27 after the CAG report held former Telecom Minister A Raja guilty for losses pegged at Rs 1.76 lakh crore — a figure arrived by extrapolating the earning in the 3G auction. Sources said that the new methodology has not found complete acceptance within the ministry as the draft is considered sketchy with “no serious thinking” on the threshold limit or the sectors it would cover.