All the money that will be cashed this year from the telecom tender that will see the allocation of the telecom spectrum for the next 15 years will be spent entirely on agriculture and state aid for the drought-stricken farmers, according to a statement made by prime-minister Victor Ponta.
The Romanian authorities expect to obtain at least EUR 700 million from the tender, if all the spectrum is sold.
“We can start projects to support farmers affected by the drought, one of the important sources of income to out budget in October is a tender organized by the Ministry of Communications. All the money from this tender will go to supporting agriculture, and definitely, farmers who were affected by the drought,” said Ponta at the end of the government meeting from August 23.
The telecom tender should start on September 10 and the final results should be announced in October. However, the money that should be paid by the winners in the telecom tender should be paid in November, and not in October, as Ponta announced. Thus, the first installment of approximately EUR 200 should be cashed in by the Romanian authorities by November 30. The rest of the sum should be paid by operators by the first half of next year.
Also until this term, EUR 234 million of this sum should be directed to the Ministry of National Defense that is supposed to clear a part of the spectrum it currently uses by December 2013.
The contenders in the tender are 2K Telecom, Cosmote Romanian Mobile Telecommunications, Orange Romania, RCS & RDS and Vodafone Romania.
Otilia Haraga