New Delhi, June 12: The government has given ten days’ time till June 22 to the successful winners of the broadband wireless airwaves (BWA) to deposit the entire Rs 38,543.31 crores it earned through online auction.
The 16-day-long auction by the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) ended yesterday.
A notification on the DoT website prescribed two methods for payment and warned that earnest money of successful bidders will be forfeited if the payment is not received by the last date, besides any other action that DoT may take.
Seven private winning bidders will be paying a total of Rs 25,695.54 crores, while the rest of the money will come from the state-owned telecom companies — Rs 4,533.97 crores by MTNL for Mumbai and Delhi and Rs 8,313.80 crores by BSNL for rest of India comprising 20 circles.
Infotel Broadband Services, a Delhi company promoted by Ananth Nahata but bought over by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries(RIL) within minutes of close of the auction, will be paying the highest Rs 12,847.77 crore to the government for winning in all 22 circles, while the Qualcomm Incorporated that bagged four circles pays the second highest Rs 4,912.54 crore among the private operators, followed by Aircel Rs 3,438.01 crore for eight circles and Airtel Rs 3,314.36 crores for four circles.
As per the auction rules, there will be three operators providing the broadband wirless connections–one state-owned company and two private bidders.
The auction rules also provided that the second highest bidder and the state-owned company has to match the highest bid in each circle and hence Mumbai yields the highest Rs 8,678.85 crores, followed by Delhi Rs 6,723.06 crores, Tamil Nadu Rs 6,208.35 crores, Karnataka Rs 4,629.75 crores and Andhra Pradesh Rs 3,177.36 crores.
–Agencies