2G auction: Montek says fixing high base price a mistake
The government had set a reserve price of `14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum
New Delhi: Days after the auction of 2G spectrum evoked a tepid response, Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday said it was a “mistake" to have a high reserve price and there was need to relook at the price during the second auction planned later this fiscal.
Ahluwalia, who was part of an empowered group of ministers (EGoM) that set 14,000 crore as the base price, said the government which plans to have another auction soon for the unsold spectrum, needs to take a relook at the price.
“I myself had raised the issue that it was a mistake to pitch the reserve price at a level close to that..." he said. “I think in the hindsight it was clear that the reserve price was too high".
The government, which had set a reserve price of 14,000 crore for pan-India spectrum broadly drawing from the basis used by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in calculating the loss in the previous sale in 2008, managed a meagre 9,407.64 crore in the auction that lasted for two days.
“But that doesn’t matter, we are going to re-auction and you will discover the price," he told reporters on the sidelines of Indo-Japan symposium in New Delhi.
Ahluwalia said several discussions were held to set the reserve price for auctioning the spectrum and the EGoM had “actually lowered the reserve price" from 18,000 crore suggested by sector regulator telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) to 14,000 crore.
“I want to mention here that one or two newspapers criticized that as if by lowering the reserve price, we are going to reduce the outcome. I had argued very strongly that a healthy auction process will discover the prices whether you fix it at one or two or seven hundred," he said.
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