Parliamentary panel wants end use of spectrum clearly defined in auction

A Parliamentary panel has recommended that airwaves sold to companies should clearly identify their end use to avoid situations like the one that had led to CAG’s critical remarks in the past about Reliance Jio making undue gains from BWA spectrum auction.

The Standing Committee on Communications and IT, in its report, recommended that greater clarity be built into spectrum auction documents including clearly spelling out scope of usage of airwaves with robust mechanisms built to also ensure its efficient utilisation, as it cited CAG report of 2015 on how “deficiencies” in past BWA auction had led to an undue advantage of Rs 3,367 crore for Reliance Jio Infocomm (previously Infotel).