According to the comptroller and auditor general report tabled in Parliament, the exchequer has lost an estimated Rs1.76 lakh crore on account of undervaluation in sale of 2G spectrum.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that had the government received additional funds from sale of the second-generation mobile telephony spectrum, it would have spent the amount on social sector schemes.
"If I would have got that money I would have spent it in social response (social sector schemes)," he said while speaking at the Hindustan Times Leadership summit in New Delhi.
According to the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) report tabled in Parliament, the exchequer has lost an estimated Rs1.76 lakh crore on account of undervaluation in sale of 2G spectrum.
Mukherjee further said the report of the CAG will be examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and necessary action would be taken.
"Till now the CAG report is being examined by the PAC. Further evidences will be called for (by the PAC) and then the final conclusion could be arrived at," he said.
The CAG, in its report on the 2G spectrum allocation, has named several telecom companies as beneficiaries of the spectrum scam that is estimated to have caused the government exchequer a loss of Rs1.76 lakh crore.
The CAG report and the political controversy that followed also led to resignation of telecom minister A Raja.
The scam has also raised a political storm, with the opposition stalling Parliament demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to probe the matter.
Referring to 3G spectrum sale, Mukherjee said he made a provision of only Rs35,000 crore while formulating the Budget proposals for 2010-11.
The actual realisation from sale of 3G spectrum and BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) was over Rs1.08 lakh crore.
"Now if somebody says that in the Budget presentation I deliberately made an undervalued presentation, it would not be correct. Sometimes it happens", he added.
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