3G winners to make bid payment by May 31: Govt
The government on Friday asked the winners of the all-India third-generation (3G) spectrum bidding in the recently concluded auction to pay by May 31, failure of which would lead to deposit forfeit. The Department of Telecommunication’s (DoT’s) order requires state-run BSNL and MTNL to also pay by the deadline.
The payment can be made via two methods—the winners can either use the real time gross settlement (RTGS) mode or core-banking facility. They have also been given the option of paying through a demand draft. Post payment, the bidders can seek a letter of intent (LoI) for the spectrum.
The bidders are likely to pay a total of Rs 67,719 crore well before the deadline and the accounts of the central government for the month of May would reflect these earnings.
Seven Indian mobile carriers including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications have won spectrum in some zones, which ended on Wednesday after 34 days of bidding.
A separate auction for wireless broadband spectrum starts from May 24.
Source:- moneycontrol
