RBI governor D Subbarao on Monday told a Delhi court that he had questioned the logic in allocating the fee of around Rs. 1,600 crore for pan India 2G-spectrum licences in 2007, but insisted that the government didn't suffer any losses in the sale of licences.

Subbarao, a witness in the case, was the finance secretary from April 2007 to September 2008.

The CBI has claimed that the exchequer suffered a loss of Rs. 28,000 crore owing to the wrongful allocation of licences.

Subbarao during the cross examination by Sushil Bajaj, counsel for Unitech Wireless, said, "While determining a policy, the government has to make a balance between welfare maximisation and revenue maximisation. In this case, if there was a sacrifice of some revenue, it cannot be said the government suffered a loss".

In contrast, Subbarao had told the court earlier in the day that in a letter written on November 22, 2007, he had questioned then telecom secretary DS Mathur for allocating a spectrum fee price framework of around Rs. 1,600 crore. "I also questioned how the rate of Rs. 1,600 crore, determined in 2001, could be applied for licences given in 2007 without any indexation..."

During the cross examination by counsel Sushil Kumar, he said it was correct that a meeting of the prime minister and the then ministers of finance and telecom had taken place on July 4, 2008.