Day 12 of the 3G spectrum auction saw the maximum jump in the single provisional bid price for pan-India spectrum at Rs 7,599 crore. Compared to the bid price on Thursday it?s a jump of Rs 631 crore or up 9%. This is the highest increase on a day-to-day basis breaking the Rs 614-crore increase registered on March 17.
Normally, the increase in the bid price on a daily basis has been around Rs 200-250 crore. With this, the government has so far garnered Rs 30,756 crore from the auctions against the budgeted Rs 35,000 crore, meaning it has realised 85% of its estimate.
The increase in the overall revenue between Thursday to Friday was the largest?Rs 2,528 crore. By all accounts the government is set to earn higher than Rs 45,000 crore. The Rs 35,000 crore would easily be met by 3G spectrum auctions, which would be followed by spectrum auction for broadband wireless access.
The single provisional bid price for pan-India spectrum is now just Rs 401 crore short of the Rs 8,000-crore mark. Analysts now see it touching the Rs 10,000-crore mark. Friday?s auction was also significant and record-breaker in another aspect. Delhi, which has for large part seen the highest bid, saw the same crossing the Rs 1,000-crore mark with the bid amount touching Rs 1,030 crore, a 220% hike from the reserve price of Rs 320 crore. Mumbai closely followed at Rs 989 crore. Though category B circles too have seen significant bidding, it?s category C circles such as HP, Bihar, Orissa and Assam where bids have so far remained constant.
The current level of activity continued to be 80%, which means that the telecom operators would be focusing their bids on the category A circles, as can be seen with Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, where the bid amount is well past Rs 500 crore.