At a time when the government is taking desperate measures to bridge the fiscal deficit by offering exchangeable bonds of Rs50 billion of its blue chip entity Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited, the auditors have pointed out that the lethargy of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in auctioning available frequencies during the last calendar year has resulted in a massive loss of Rs67 billion to the national exchequer.
This was revealed by the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) in the audit report 2010-11 on the accounts telecommunication sector. The report reveals that due to sluggishness on part of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the national exchequer sustained a loss of Rs67 billion as the PTA failed to carry out auction process causing huge loss to government kitty despite frequencies made available by the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) in January 2010. “PTA presented proposal regarding auction of available Wireless Local Loop (WLL) spectrum in 1900 MHz Band during the 35th meeting held on January 11, 2010. The board approved the auction of the available spectrum of 5 MHz (1885-1890/1965-1970 MHz) in all 14 telecom regions, 10 MHz in NTR-II and 15 MHz in HTR in 1900 MHz Band.
The Board further approved the requirement of Pakistan Army to be considered in other frequency bands to meet their future requirements; and it was further decided that the committee already formulated on agenda item 3, will also set base price for auction of this spectrum within 30 days,” says the report.
The AGP pointed out that the available WLL spectrum in 1900 MHz was not auctioned as decided in the Board meeting which resulted into loss of Rs66,112 million (around 66 billion) to national exchequer. “The decision of the Board was not implemented within 30 days. The loss was calculated on the basis of previous auction of WLL frequencies.
The FAB made these frequencies available for auction but PTA did not carry out the auction process causing loss to national exchequer,” the report adds. The report points out towards another similar case where the government sustained a loss of Rs1,048 million (around 1 billion) due to non-auction of available WLL spectrum in 3.4-3.6 GHZ band and the PTA also refused to produce the record before audit authorities. “In this case too, the FAB made these frequencies available for auction but PTA did not carry out the auction process causing loss to national exchequer,” the report says.
