Govt’s revenue crosses Rs. 25,000 crore from 3G

The Government’s revenue from the 3G spectrum auction crossed the Rs. 25,000 crore-mark on the 9th day today, with the base price increasing to Rs. 6,355 crore for pan-India frequency.

Delhi continues to be on top, with a bid of Rs. 733.71 crore against the base price of Rs. 320 crore. Mumbai attracted the second highest quotation of Rs. 667.77 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu at Rs. 643.37 crore.

After today’s round, the government will get at least Rs. 25,770 crore from the sale of 3G spectrum and this would be followed by auction of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, whose base price has been fixed at Rs. 1,750 crore.

So far 52 rounds of bids have been completed and in major circles like Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, there is no excess demand, indicating that the price may not go up further in these circles.

However, going by the rules of the auction, any operator can come back and bid for any of the circle till the Government discovers price in all the areas simultaneously.

Kolkata is the only circle with excess demand and there are 11 service areas with negative demand.

Sources said that activity would now shift to B and C-category circles.

Asked whether the price would also go up further with operators shifting to these circles, sources said it may go up somewhat.

The Government has set a target of garnering up to Rs. 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for 3G and BWA, for which the auction would begin two days after 3G.