No cheap selling of spectrum in Antrix-Devas deal: Review Committee

Chennai - The controversial deal between Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commercial arm Antrix Corporation and Devas Multimedia may not have resulted in huge revenue loss for the central government as projected by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the High Powered Review Committee has said.

The two-member review committee that went into the controversial deal between Antrix Corporation and Bangalore-based Devas Multimedia has ruled out cheap selling of spectrum to the latter.

The report of the review committee comprising B.K. Chaturvedi and Roddam Naraimha was made public by ISRO late Saturday night.

As per the deal, Antrix was to provide 70 MHz S-Band spectrum to Devas, which is into multimedia services. Antrix would provide the spectrum by leasing out transponders of two satellites to be built mainly for Devas.

The CAG estimated the loss to the exchequer to the tune of Rs.2 lakh crore because of the deal. The centre later scrapped the controversial deal.

"Concerns of cheap selling of spectrum to Devas have no basis whatsoever. Space spectrum is not comparable to terrestrial spectrum. Devas was also required to obtain licences from Department of Telecommunications, Department of Information Broadcating for providing services to customers and would have to pay, apart from transponder leasing charges, other charges which would be determined by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) based on consultation mechanism," the committee declared.

However, the committee said the deal indicates certain financial and strategic gaps for which the chairman of the Antrix Board, secretary of the Department of Space, member finance of the Space Commission and director of SATCOM at ISRO were primarily responsible.

The committee said the chairman of ISRO and the Antrix Board who finalised several areas of the Antrix-Devas deal must also share the responsibility for some of the gaps.