Ministry of Information Technology (IT) has requested Finance Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh to convene Auction Supervisory Committee (ASC) meeting to finalise the process for auction of 3G licenses to generate Rs 79 billion estimated in the budget for the current fiscal year, it was learnt.
Sources said that the IT Ministry on the request of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) moved a summary in this regard. The ASC meeting would finalize the process for hiring of consultant as required under the procedure to make the entire transaction transparent for auction of 3G licenses. The government has been projecting inflows in the budget for the last two years on account of 3G licenses but failed to accomplish the transaction for various reasons including lack of transparency.
As soon as the process to hire the consultant is completed, the consultant would be required to process the auction of 3G licenses within three months from the date of his appointment. An official said that ASC meeting is expected to take place as soon as Finance Minister returns from abroad.
A top official of IT Ministry accused PTA of being responsible for the delay. He said that it was PTA mandate to pursue early hiring of consultant but the regulator did not make any serious effort in this regard. After failure to generate Rs 75 billion from auction of 3G licenses during last fiscal year, the government has estimated Rs 79 billion in the current fiscal year.
According to budget 2012-13 documents, government had estimated profit of Rs 75 billion from PTA in the year 2011-12 under the head of non-tax revenue income from property and enterprise. However under the revised figures no amount was shown.
Senior officials of the Finance Ministry revealed that government had estimated $850 million (Rs 75 billion) for the last fiscal year 2011-12 from the auction. The same amount i.e. $850 is estimated for the fiscal year 2012-13, however due to eroding rupee value vis-a-vis the dollar, the estimated profit has been shown as higher in local currency (Rs 79 billion).