Who will bell reserve price on 2G spectrum

Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has resigned as chairman of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on telecom thereby further delaying the decision on 2G spectrum reserve price. Earlier, the decision was deferred by Pranab Mukherjee, the then chairman of EGOM who stepped down to facilitate his presidential nomination as he wanted to come clean from the whole controversy. Same is the case with Sharad Pawar as he does not want his name to be unnecessarily dragged into 2G spectrum controversy.

It seems even TRAI chairman JS Sarma took such an extreme decision on 2G spectrum reserve price so that nobody can question him in a court of law as these decisions will never get implemented and he can lead a good retired life.

It seems nobody wants to take a decision on 2G spectrum and everybody wants to pass the buck to the next. It is almost 90 days since TRAI came out with its recommendation on spectrum auction but no decision has been taken which shows that policy paralysis is deepening and it is affecting telecom as a vertical in a big way. This is also impacting other sectors as the government is in no hurry to accept the reality.

The EGOM decision on the reserve price is important for all companies whose license have been cancelled and all incumbent players and they are all eagerly awaiting the decision so that they can plan (short term as well as long term) their activities for the remaining fiscal but it seems the government is not in a hurry as focus is on back channel diplomacy and to also delay the decision as far as possible.

In this case, the decision is simple, the EGOM to be headed by the new person has three options. First, it can accept the entire TRAI recommendations on 2G spectrum. Second, it can reject TRAI recommendations entirely and third, it can tweak the recommendations as TRAI recommendations are not binding on the government.

On the other hand, the government is of the view in case of natural resources that the auctions cannot be the only permissible way of allocation of natural resources and the same theory can also apply in case of spectrum and courts cannot interfere with the policy decisions.

All this will continue but in the best interest of the nation, the prime minister should head EGOM and take decision within a week as this is the only solution left.