New Delhi, Dec. 19: The CPM today accused communications minister A. Raja of misleading Parliament on the issuance of telecom licences at throwaway prices.

The party alleged that the telecom licences for spectrum allotment cost the exchequer Rs 100,000 crore, and demanded that the Prime Minister look into it.

“This is a mega telecom scam. New telecom licences have been given on first-come, first-serve basis at prices fixed in 2001. The market value of these licences is roughly seven times higher now,” CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechury told reporters.

Raja, in reply to a question in Parliament, had said neither the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) nor telecom regulator Trai had objected to the allocation of spectrum to 2G telecom service providers on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“This was nothing but an attempt to mislead Parliament, obfuscate matters and conceal the truth,” Yechury said.

He said that in a letter dated November 15 this year, the CVC had expressed dissatisfaction with an earlier response of the telecom department (DoT) to its queries on the spectrum allocation policy.

Trai had said the DoT violated its recommendations while allocating new licences to 2G telecom operators, Yechury said.