Rel Jio Voice Telephony

On May 8, 2015, CAG tabled its report dated April 24, 2015 in the Parliament. Para 2.8 of this report is titled as “Lack of due diligence in auction of spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Services.” CAG has reduced the loss figures significantly from Rs 22,842 cr to Rs 3,367.29 cr without explaining any reason.

CAG’s earlier final draft report of May 2, 2014 had concluded that DoT provided an undue advantage of Rs 22,842 cr to Reliance Jio by permitting them voice telephony. That draft report was titled as “Serious breach of Auction conditions by IBSPL (Rel-Jio) and post auction, undue favour to RIL (Rel-Jio) by permitting voice services on BWA spectrum.” It was consistent with its earlier findings and was prepared after several communications & verifications of DoT’s internal files / documents. CAG also had several rounds of meetings with the DoT. CAG after considering various replies / explanation of the DoT was still of the firm view that the decision to allow voice telephony to Reliance Jio is nothing but giving an undue advantage of Rs 22,842 cr to them.