Telcos allowed to refinance auction debt with offshore loans

The government allowed telecommunications companies to raise loans from offshore markets to refinance debt for funding a 2G airwave auction that starts on Monday.

[caption id=“attachment_520325” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Reuters[/caption]

The Reserve Bank of India will issue a formal notification on this within a week, a government statement said.

India is selling second-generation mobile phone airwaves for the first time through an auction after a court order. The base price for the auction has been set at more than seven times what carriers paid in earlier state grant process.

Reuters