The Department of Telecom (DoT), reportedly turned down the proposal by the Finance Ministry to double the base price for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum, says a report from Economic Times.

The reason cited for turning down the proposal is that the doubling of base price may lead to reduced interest from industry players to participate in the auction. Also higher base price may lead to increased price of the services for the end-consumer as well.

Earlier last week the finance ministry sought increasing the base price for 3G spectrum to Rs 4040 crore from the current price of Rs 2020 crore and BWA spectrum to be priced Rs 2020 crore from presently priced Rs 1010 crore. Finance Ministry reasoned that in wake of lack of participation from foreign players the auction may not result in expected revenues for the government. Hence by increasing the base price, it will be ensured that the government generates healthy revenues from auction.