TRAI, which had mooted the direct allocation proposal, should have known that its effusive concern for bulk users would pit the likes of TCS with telcos who have a diametrically opposite take on the issue
The Manmohan Singh government was on the mat over its coal allocation gratis to actual users like power and steel plants. The Supreme Court, in August 2014, had cancelled such allocation to 218 actual users as being arbitrary and illegal and opined that a transparent auction of natural resources was the best course. Indeed, it is lest the government of the day is accused of favouritism or crony capitalism and the exchequer gets to raise resources from non-tax sources.
The SC coal verdict came on the back of its 2G verdict cancelling allotment of spectrum on the basis of the opaque and potentially mischievous first-come-first-served (FCFS) criterion. It was against this backdrop that its fastidious accent on auction almost as panacea, holy writ for selling the nation’s natural resources must be examined.
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The UAE doesn’t have personal taxation as it has sizeable non-tax revenue from nature’s munificence – hydrocarbon. Nature has been unkind to India on this score. All the more reason why it should not pass up whatever…