Government receives Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment

The government has received Rs.18,267 crore upfront spectrum payment from telecom companies, which was about Rs.30 crore less than the bids received from seven companies in the spectrum auction last month owing to the unavailability of radiowaves in some parts of the service areas. However, the amount received was about 61 percent higher than the government’s set target of about Rs.11,333 crore for the current fiscal. The government received bids worth Rs.62,162 crore in the auction for 1800 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands in last month. The seven winning telecom firms of recently held spectrum auction have to pay 33 per cent upfront for the 1800 Mhz bank and 25 per cent for the 900 Mhz band, while, rest of the amount is to be paid in yearly instalments after two years with about 10 per cent interest. Vodafone, the biggest winner of spectrum, had to make an upfront payment of about Rs.5,582 crore; Airtel Rs.5,425 crore; Idea Rs.3,240 crore; Reliance Jio Rs.3,648; Telewings (Uninor) Rs.290 crore; Aircel Rs.69 crore and RCom Rs.54 crore. The high spectrum payment will help the government to contain the widening fiscal deficit, which has crossed the FY 14 set target of Rs 5.33 lakh crore or 4.8 percent of GDP in the first ten months of the 2013/14 financial year.