National

More revenues will be generated: Raja

— PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

A. Raja at a press meet in New Delhi on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Denying any wrongdoing in 2G spectrum allocation, Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja said here on Friday that he had made available unused spectrum to telecom players since he took charge of the Ministry, which led to the rapid growth of the sector.

Mr. Raja said it was wrong to say that the current fee and levy structure was not fetching revenues to the exchequer. “So far we have collected over Rs. 55,000 crore; and another around Rs. 8,000 crore would be collected after we implement the proposed additional one-time charge and other levies on operators. More revenues will be generated as we add more subscribers.”

On the issue of sale of stakes by two new telecom players — Swan and Unitech — to foreign companies at a huge premium, Mr. Raja said: “It was not an outright sale as [is] being projected. In fact, the transaction will bring foreign direct investment (FDI) into the country. The matter has been discussed and clarified with Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. Moreover, I have asked the Telecom Commission to look into any anomalies in the deal. And if there is any violation of law, we will take action.”