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Government realises Rs 77,814 crore against Rs 4 lakh crore spectrum put for sale – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The much-touted spectrum auctions ended after just six rounds and under two days as the government managed to generate sales of Rs 77,814 crore, much below the near Rs 4 lakh crore worth of airwaves put up for sale.
The biggest buyer was Reliance Jio that spent Rs 57,123 crore to cover a large part of its spectrum that was coming up for renewal, while a resurgent Airtel bid Rs 18,699 crore, Vodafone Idea spent Rs 1,993 crore. It is believed that Vodafone Idea did not repurchase some of the spectrum which it will be vacating.
Telecom companies were cautious and did not bid over the reserve price, preferring to conserve cash in view of the tough financial position of the sector, while also reserving money for 5G auctions that may happen over the next few quarters.
Also, many found the reserve pricing set by regulator Trai and ratified by the inter-ministerial digital communications commission (DCC) “overpriced”, and stayed away from coveted 700 MHz band, which found no takers for the second time in running (it did not find buyers in 2016 auctions). Spectrum in the 2500 MHz band was also left out.
For the record, the just-ended auctions were the second-biggest grosser for the government in terms of spectrum sales (the first being the Rs 1.1 lakh crore sale achieved in February 2015). The telecom department hopes to collect around Rs 20,000 crore for the exchequer through the auctions as part of the mandated upfront payment that companies need to make towards purchase.
Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said that the auctions had ended by 12:45 PM on Tuesday, in just a few hours after they had opened on the second day. While the government had got bids worth Rs 77,146 crore on the opening day on Monday, Tuesday was completely muted with only Rs 668 crore worth of incremental bids before the process came to a close.
The telecom department, however, managed to sell around 37% — or 855.6 MHz — of the 2308.80 MHz spectrum that had been put up for sale. Prakash maintained that the sale had “far exceeded” the government’s expectations. He said the government had expected to mop up only about Rs 45,000 crore as per its own internal projections.