Quote:NEW DELHI: What prompted the Comptroller and Auditor General from not quantifying the losses to the exchequer in the KG Basin contract and Air India decisions may never be known.<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' /> [color="#ff00ff"][ Right!! How about UPA "dhamkees"? ][/color]



But from the way the federal auditor conducted itself on the day the reports were tabled one thing was clear-- there seems to be a rethink about the posture adopted by the constitutional authority in recent months.



From its almost devil-may-care attitude, calculating the presumptive losses in 2G spectrum allocation, and holding forth on live television, the CAG was almost coy on Thursday. So, there were no TV cameras and live telecast as the CAG briefed media about three audit reports tabled in Parliament -- the audit of oil exploration contracts, especially of KG Basin given to Reliance Industries, the aircraft purchase for Air India/Indian Airlines and their integration, as well as on defence matters. The CAG officials were impatient with persistent media questions, and limited the number of questions too.



The CAG conduct, without live telecast of its findings, and without estimates of humongous losses to the exchequer, was significantly subdued from the recent past, when it held forth on the findings of 2G spectrum allocations, Commonwealth Games etc.



CAG officials justified the absence of a specific figure on estimate of losses, especially in the KG Basin contract, saying they were beyond the audit norms. "Estimating loss was not within the scope of our audit," Rekha Gupta, Deputy CAG, said.



Though speculation was rife about the huge losses to the exchequer caused by the way the entire KG Basin contract was handled, and the possibility of CAG quantifying it, the final report was clearly silent on a specific figure.



To give credit where it is due, the audit has come down heavily on the government for approving the rise in capital expenditure from $2.4 billion to $8.8 billion for KG Basin exploration.



CAG has been under attack from the UPA government ever since its 2G spectrum audit, with the presumptive losses at the maximum estimated at Rs 1,76,000 crore, was released with much fanfare. In June, even the Prime Minister had criticized the CAG for holding press conferences and said it was unusual for it to comment on policy issues. The government had also rubbished the presumptive loss estimates.

Quote:NEW DELHI: Political parties are sourcing a major chunk of their funds from unidentified donors, according to their income-tax returns. Donors' lists and tax returns filed by the Congress, BJP, NCP and BSP for the past five years show they have not identified those who account for most of their funding.[/size]



[size="3"]For instance, the Congress collected at least Rs 978 crore through sale of coupons in the five years till 2008-09, for which it has not provided any contributors' list to authorities. In comparison, contributions collected by the ruling party with donors' names account for a mere Rs 85 crore in the same period.[/size]



[size="3"]The BJP, which has not proved as successful in gathering funds while in opposition, has made Rs 30 crore through sale of its Ajivan Sahyog Nidhi coupons in the five years between 2005 and 2009. In comparison, it has recieved Rs 95 crore from identified donors.[/size]



[size="3"]The BSP, despite its smaller size, has been more successful and innovative in its collection of funds. The party received more than Rs 200 crore through cash donations in just two years (2007-08 and 2008-09). It has not made any disclosure about who its contributors are, claiming that all donations received by it are below Rs 20,000. When I-T authorities tried to unearth the identities of its donors, the BSP successfully argued that all its contributions in cash are made by poor supporters, out of love and affection for the party leader. [/size]



[size="3"]The Representation of People Act states that political parties are required to submit details of contributions received in excess of Rs 20,000 from any person or a company.[/size]



[size="3"]Those familiar with the issue feel that it is no coincidence that most of the donations don't exceed Rs 20,000 and thus contributors remain unidentified.[/size]



[size="3"]While the I-T department finds nothing amiss about it<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':angry:' />, the pattern of parties getting funds from people who wish to stay anonymous has engaged the attention of anti-graft campaigners.[/size]



[size="3"]Flush from their success in pressuring the government on the Lokpal bill, they have now decided to campaign for full transparency in political funding.[/size]



[size="3"]Income-Tax authorities have looked at accounts of four major political parties -- Congress, BJP, BSP and the CPM -- for two assessment years between 2006 and 2008.[/size]



[size="3"]Though they found everything in order and also certified the accounts of these parties, activists led by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has demanded a thorough probe into parties receiving undisclosed contributions which constitute up to 90% of their total funds collected in any particular year.[/size]



[size="3"]The ADR has written to the Central Board of Direct Taxes demanding a probe into the large cash donations received by political parties. "There is a dire need for a thorough investigation and scrutiny of the source and flow of such donations to curb the flow of black money into the coffers of political parties," said Anil Bairwal, coordinator of ADR.[/size]



[size="3"]He alleged that parties are misusing the RP Act by taking multiple donations from the same persons but keeping each contribution within the limit of Rs 20,000 so that they don't have to disclose donors' names. "Make it mandatory (for every party) to issue receipts with full details of name, address and amount contributed," Bairwal said.[/size]

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Quote:[/size][size="3"]Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Thursday produced fresh documents in the Supreme Court, including an office memorandum, to show the alleged active involvement of Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, the then Finance Minister, in the decision relating to the fixing of price in the allocation of 2G spectrum by the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja.[/size]



[size="3"]A document, which was placed before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly, is dated March 25, 2011. It is written by P.G.S Rao, Deputy Director in the Finance Ministry, to Vini Mahajan, Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office on the allocation and pricing of 2G spectrum. It said: “Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the note after personally inspecting the 11-page document.”[/size]



[size="3"]It referred to a Department of Telecom (DoT) letter, dated November 29, 2007, recommending both the revision of entry fee fixed in 2003 as well as the adoption of the auction methodology for determining the spectrum usage charges. It said the position paper was prefaced with a note dated January 9, 2008, which inter alia mentioned that a meeting of the full Telecom Commission, scheduled for January 9, 2008, was postponed to January 15, 2008.[/size]



[size="3"]It said, “This position paper was used by the then Finance Minister as a basis of his ‘secret note' to the Prime Minister on January 15, 2008, wherein an auction-based mechanism was recommended for future allocation of spectrum [beyond the start-up spectrum] with the spectrum allocations having been made in the past to be treated as a closed chapter.” [/size]



[size="3"]The DoT would have been forced to cancel the 2G licences had the Finance Ministry, under Mr. Chidambaram, stuck to its original demand for auctioning the initial ‘start-up spectrum' of 4.4 MHz each allotted to the 2008 licensees. [/size]



[size="3"]Implicit agreement[/size]



[size="3"]It said that the Ministry “implicitly agreed to the imposition of the same entry fee as that prevailing in 2001 for licences allotted up to December 31, 2008.” This despite a November 22, 2007 note by the then Finance Secretary and the present RBI Governor, D. Subbarao, that the 2001 mobile licence entry fee of Rs.1,650 crore was applied and not the market price at that time.[/size]



[size="3"]The note explained how there was a consensus between Mr. Raja and Mr. Chidambaram not to charge more for spectrum, up to 4.4 MHz. It said: “However, these were not charged [beyond the normal spectrum usage charges] since there was consensus, at the levels of the Ministers concerned, that only spectrum beyond the ‘start-up' levels [beyond 4.4 MHz] only should be charged.”[/size]



[size="3"]On January 30, 2008, at a meeting of Mr. Chidamabaram and Mr. Raja, “it was noted by the then Finance Minister that he was, for now, not seeking to revisit the current regimes for entry fee or revenue share.”[/size]



[size="3"]It said, “Based on the DoT letter, an internal note was prepared on February 11, 2008, by the Department of Economic Affairs, wherein the entire range of spectrum was proposed to be charged for both new and old operators.”[/size]



[size="3"]The note to the PMO said the DEA was legally within its rights to revise the spectrum pricing, even though the Letter of Intents (LoIs) were already granted and though there was an anticipation of litigation from companies who were already allocated 2G spectrum licences.[/size]



[size="3"]On April 21, 2008, Mr. Chidambaram sent a ‘non-paper' to Mr. Raja, conveying that an ‘in-principle' decision “may be taken to price spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz, as suggested by the DoT.[/size]



[size="3"]It said, “It may be mentioned that while the UAS licences were signed between February 27 and March 7, 2008, spectrum allocations were done starting only in April, 2008, almost four months after the LoIs were issued. However, these were not charged [beyond the normal spectrum usage charges] since there was consensus, at the levels of the Ministers concerned, that spectrum beyond the start-up levels only should be charged.”[/size]



[size="3"]Dr. Swamy urged the court to consider these fresh documents to drive home the demand for a CBI probe against Mr. Chidambaram. Arguments will continue on Thursday.[/size][size="3"]

Quote:[/size][size="3"]The worse off the poor become, the healthier our Ministers get. [/size]



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[size="2"]Daily wage labourers are seen outside the office of Planning Commission in New Delhi. A report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector recorded that 836 million Indians live on Rs.20 a day or less. File Photo: V.V. Krishnan

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[/size][size="3"]Air India might not be doing as well we'd like it to. But the braveheart who flew it fearlessly into dense clouds of debt is doing okay. Praful Patel (who no longer holds the aviation portfolio) added, on average, over half a million rupees every day to his assets in 28 months between May 2009 and August 2011. This might be an understated figure since it is based on his own word. Ministers tend to be modest in these matters. But given the official data, the math is inescapable.[/size]



[size="3"]In his 2009 poll affidavit, Mr. Patel said his assets were worth over Rs.79 crore. Let's assume he listed all he had up to April 2009, the polls being in May that year. Compare that figure with the more than Rs.122 crore that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) put up against his name online this month. Since this increase occurred in 28 months, my math says that averages over Rs.5 lakh a day. (I can add, though not at the speed of Mr. Patel.)[/size]



[size="3"]Air India, meanwhile, struggles to pay salaries to its employees. Mr. Patel adds more to his wealth every day than each of 40 per cent of the airline's employees earns in a year. So while the airline might get grounded, he flies high. As an ex-Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) chief said decades ago (of ailing private units): the sicker the units grew, the healthier the owners got. That crudely fits the state of the Indian poor in relation to their government. The worse off they become, the healthier the Union Cabinet gets. (Drag corporate bosses into the equation and it's more dramatic. But that's another story.) Patel was rewarded for services rendered. He was elevated to Cabinet rank as Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises.[/size]



[size="3"]The analysis of the Union Cabinet's assets, done as thoroughly as always by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the National Election Watch (NEW), makes crisp reading. It's official. Trickle Down is passé. Lift Irrigation, sending flows gushing to the top, is in. The average asset worth of a union minister rose from Rs.7.3 crore to Rs.10.6 crore in those 28 months. Adding a modest million a month on average through 28 months.[/size]



[size="3"]Mr. Patel is the richest Union Cabinet member by far. But the DMK's Dr. S. Jagathrakshakan made a bold dash to fame. The Minister of State (MoS) for Information and Broadcasting's assets grew by 1,092 per cent to Patel's 53 per cent. According to the ADR's analysis, his assets went up from Rs.5.9 crore in 2009 to Rs.70 crore this year. But Patel, batting on 122, still tops the Cabinet Premier League. The DMK man might have worked up a scorching pace, but Patel's dug in for a good, long innings.[/size]



[size="3"]Meanwhile, the dashing youth brigade isn't doing too badly either. Young Milind Deora, MoS for Communications and Information Technology, almost doubled his assets between 2009 and 2011. He went from over Rs.17 crore to more than Rs.33 crore. Consider that his 2004 poll affidavit pegged his worth at Rs.8.8 crore. Adding almost a lakh every day on average for seven years and nearly quadrupling your assets in that time isn't so bad.[/size]



[size="3"]On the face of it, Deora has outclassed Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Going by their declarations, Deora is two-and-a-half times richer than the mighty Maratha. He was richer than him even in 2009, but increased his assets by almost 90 per cent since then. Pawar failed to add even a paltry Rs.4 crore in the same time. Which means he clocks in at under Rs.12.5 crore, all told. A kindly account making the rounds in his home state is that Pawarsaheb was slightly confused over whether the declaration called for revealing his total asset worth or a statement of monthly income. [/size]



[size="3"]Another modest performer is Minister of Science & Technology Vilasrao Deshmukh. He's added a piffling Rs.1.73 crore since 2009. Mr. Deshmukh is also Minister of Earth Sciences. (A title seen in Maharashtra as jargon for Real Estate expertise.)[/size]



[size="3"]Otherwise, the cricket caucus in Dr. Manmohan Singh's team is doing well. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and new IPL boss Rajeev Shukla added over Rs.22 crore in those 28 months to his total asset worth. That takes it from over Rs.7 crore in 2009 to more than Rs.30 crore this year.[/size]



[size="3"]It's not just serving ministers who are thriving, though. Nor are the upwardly mobile confined to the Centre. As always, the bulk of the Guinness Book stuff comes out of two of my ‘home states.' Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. (I have a third, actually: Tamil Nadu — which is where Jagathrakshakan comes from, so the scope for native pride is pretty large.) But let's turn to Andhra Pradesh. Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy is not in power. This has not hampered his entrepreneurial march. In 24 months till April this year, he added well over Rs.357 crore to his just-under Rs.72 crore-figure of April 2009. This means he added on average over Rs.50 lakh every single day during this period. Considering he's been embattled on all fronts, this is no minor achievement. Now you know what the pundits mean when they speak of the dynamism of Generation Next in politics.[/size]



[size="3"]Only Chandrababu Naidu, alas, has grown poorer. The former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister made public his asset worth in view of ‘the climate' ushered in by the Anna Hazare era. Mr. Naidu isn't even worth Rs.40 lakh. There is no immediate cause for concern over his livelihood though. His wife is worth almost Rs.40 crore. Yet, the relative picture is a microcosm of Andhra politics: Jagan on the rise, Naidu in decline. But while The Fates have not been kind to Mr. Naidu, his accountants have been more generous. His Jubilee Hill property (1,125 square yards, or over 10,000 square feet) shows up as worth no more than Rs.23.20 lakh. Now this is the costliest locality in Andhra Pradesh. So building a 10,000 square-foot home there, on that amount, argues great frugality. But wasn't it worth nearly Rs.9 crore in his 2009 poll affidavit? This time around Mr. Naidu gives us only the ‘cost of acquisition' and not the market value, since the latter ‘varies from time to time.'[/size]



[size="3"]There are, though, serious lessons to be learnt from all of this beyond the need for smart accountants. This insane rise in affluence and wealth is not just about ministers but about MPs and MLAs too. And leaders at all levels of the main political forces, particularly the Congress, the BJP and most ruling or big parties in the states. The number of crorepatis is up in Parliament and every State assembly. In Maharashtra, they went up from 108 in 2004 to 186 in 2009. Over three-fourths of the Union Cabinet are crorepatis. Much of their new wealth was acquired while in office.[/size]



[size="3"]Thanks to public anger and the persistence of the ADRs and NEWs, data on this comes more into the open. That is excellent. But all declarations must include what they paid as taxes. That would allow the public to make slightly better sense of the numbers. If you want transparency in public service, surely that should include having all their returns online, too. This would be a major reform, one amongst the many we badly need. Another is penalties for cheating. ADR shows us ministers whose declarations do not include 12 residential buildings they own.[/size]



[size="3"]We need to have a serious audit, starting with the wealth of the Union Cabinet. How do people make half a million rupees a day while in office? Remember most of them made the greatest additions to their wealth while ‘serving' the public. Surely we are owed answers on this. Mere disclosure of wealth is not enough. If it is so grotesquely large, we need to know how it was made.[/size]



[size="3"]In late April, the Planning Commission filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court defending a per capita expenditure of Rs.20 a day as a viable cut-off line for determining poverty in urban India. For rural India that was just Rs.15. They say they might give the Rs.20 figure a generous upgrade — all the way to Rs.25. Remember the report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector headed the late Dr. Arjun Sengupta? It recorded that 836 million Indians live on Rs.20 a day or less. How do our clubs of crorepatis represent these masses?<img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/angry.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':angry:' /> Or do some start by doing so and lose anchor very quickly? How do we curb this? It's something to think about. So are the profound changes of the last 20 years that have made it so difficult for any but millionaires to contest elections, let alone win them.[/size]



[size="3"]