PAC chairman Murli Manohar Joshi said the committee had some questions to ask related to Dr. Subbarao’s stint as Finance Secretary in 2007-08 just before he became RBI Governor. At a previous meeting of the PAC, another former Finance Secretary, Ashok Chawla, was asked to clarify certain issues.
Extent of loss
While refusing to divulge what exactly transpired at the meeting here on Thursday, Dr. Joshi did admit that the PAC was trying to ascertain the extent of the loss suffered by the public exchequer as a result of the faulty allocation of 2G spectrum licences. The CAG report had given a range of figures, using different methodologies. Dr. Joshi said: “some light has been thrown on this [the losses suffered].”
The PAC, he said, had asked for and received a large number of documents from the Prime Minister’s Office in connection with the 2G spectrum matter. “If we want any more details, we will ask for more documents,” he said, while clarifying that the committee had so far not taken any decision on accepting the Prime Minister’s “offer” to appear before it, if needed.
Dr. Joshi said the PAC could decide to ask corporate lobbyist Niira Radia to appear before it.
Representations received from various companies (which got licences and spectrum) were sent to the Department Of Telecommunications (DoT) for its comments. Dr. Joshi said he wished to say only that the PAC was “seized of the matter.”