The Congress on Thursday accused the central government of burying a Rs 45,000-crore telecom fraud exposed by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) earlier this year. At the centre of the Congress charge is a decision by former Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to conduct a review of the audited books of six telecom operators after the CAG report was made public in March. AICC spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said the review of the operators' accounts was an attempt by the Centre to dilute the extent of the loss put out by the CAG and to delay the process of recovery. He alleged that the Centre was bailing out the six telecom firms mentioned in the CAG report: Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Aircel India. The CAG had initiated an audit of these six telcos for the period between 2006-07 and 2009-10 on the instructions of the Congress-led UPA government in 2011. During this period, telecom operators did not have to pay any up-front price for spectrum but had to pay an annual licence fee and spectrum usage in the form of revenue share.