3G licences will be auctioned next month, Ishaq Dar affirms

ISLAMABAD: The leaked information regarding the government’s plan for auctioning 3G and 4G licences was confirmed by the government on Friday. Federal Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said in a press conference on Friday that by the end of March, the process of third-generation spectrum auction will commence with Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar expected to take part. Dar stated that the government has approved the draft information memorandum prepared by the consultants, and that the license will be offered for 15 years. A high-level government source earlier confirmed that the government had officially endorsed recommendations proposed by the auction consultants. The finance minister and the Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rahman had participated in the meeting. The information was accidentally leaked by a photographer of the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) when he inadvertently took a photograph of the proposal. The photograph had revealed that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will auction 50 MHz of spectrum (30 MHz in 3G band and 20 MHz in 4G band). The base price will be $295 million per 10 MHz for 3G and $210 million per 10 MHz for 4G. Dar confirmed the figures and added that the reserved price for new entrants would be $291 million. As per policy‚ the successful bidder will have to pay 50 per cent price forthwith while the rest would be payable in five years with interest rate three per cent above LIBOR. The finance minister added that the GDP growth rate is likely to cross four per cent during the current financial year. He said that the government believes inflation can be confined to single digit while the IMF too has revised the projection downward from 12 to 10 per cent for the year.