Saturday 17 November 2012

Second round of 2G spectrum auctions by March 2013: Kapil Sibal

India intends to conduct another sale of airwaves before March 2013 to find bidders for unsold spectrum, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said on Friday. 
Sibal blamed 'sensationalism' and the "environment created by extrapolation of figures (resulting in) limited policy prescriptions available with the government" for the failure of the recently concluded auctions, which raked in less than a quarter of the Centre's revenue targets. 

"There will be an auction before March. The circles that received no bids, unsold spectrum in other regions, CDMA airwaves - all can be sold. The procedure to be followed, reserve price and other issues will be decided soon," he added. 
Sibal and Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who also addressed the press conference, were criticizing the national auditor that, in a report issued in 2010, had claimed faulty allocation of licences by former telecom minister A Raja had cost the exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore. 
"We cannot extrapolate figures and sensationalise them, because by doing so, we ended up destroying the hen that laid the golden eggs. This resulted in what we saw a few days ago," Sibal said. He said the auction debacle proved that policymaking is "best left with the government". 
"Revenue cannot be the sole criterion for policymaking. Where is the Rs 1.76 lakh crore? This is a lesson that all of us must learn: allow institutions charged with certain responsibilities to do those," Sibal said. 
The FM, who headed the Empowered Group of Ministers on spectrum, said the auctions were "not over yet" and the Centre would make "substantial gains once the process is complete". 
"There is unsold spectrum in four circles and other regions. There is CDMA, there is also refarming (reallocation of the more efficient 2G spectrum band held by incumbents during licence renewal)... there will be more auctions before March." 
Sibal pegged the value of spectrum available for sale at Rs 62,000 crore. "So, even if we get half of it, we should get Rs 25,000-27,000 crore," he said.

Source:
http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/951-second-round-of-2g-spectrum-auctions-by-march-2013-kapil-sibal.htmlSource: http://cablequest.org/news/telecom-news/item/951-second-round-of-2g-spectrum-auctions-by-march-2013-kapil-sibal.html

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