Centre defers spectrum auction by a week to 4 March

New Delhi: Government today deferred the telecom spectrum auction by a week to 4 March, while the deadline for bidders to submit applications has been extended to 16 February. The changes were uploaded on the Department of Telecom website as first amendment in the notice inviting application for spectrum auctions.[caption id=“attachment_2057091” align=“aligncenter” width=“380”] Spectrum issue. Reuters[/caption] Earlier, the auctions were scheduled to start from 25 February and the interested bidders were asked to submit applications by 6 February. The government expects to fetch at least Rs 64,840 crore from the sale of radiowaves. This is the biggest auction in terms of base price value of radiowaves being put up for sale. The government has plans to sell 380.75 megahertz in three bands – the premium 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 800 MHz. It will also sell 5 Mhz in the 2100 Mhz band, which is used for 3G services, across 17 out of 22 telecom areas. Though the government has finalised base rates for 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz and 800 Mhz band, it is yet to decide the price for 2100 Mhz band. Government has fixed a reserve price of “Rs 3,646 crore pan-India per MHz in 800 MHz, Rs 3980 crore for 900 MHz band pan-India excluding Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and J&K; Rs 2,191 crore pan-India (excluding Maharashtra and West Bengal) in the 1800 MHz band. Government had garnered about Rs 62,162 crore from the last auction in February 2014. Proceeds from this year’s auction is expected to help the government reach its fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent of GDP. PTI