PEMRA Announces New Eligibility Criteria for DTH License Applicants

Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has issued the revised Information Memorandum (IM) for the auction of DTH licenses to be held on October 31, 2016.

PEMRA has revised the eligibility criteria for the applicants, which has already disqualified some of the earlier accepted applicants.

More details below!

Eligibility Criteria for Applicants:

Applicant must be a registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP).

One applicant can’t apply or get more than one DTH license.

Applicants must have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs. 100 Million.

The applicant company will have to demonstrate that it has sufficient financial and technical resources to launch, establish and operate the DTH Distribution Service.

Applicants shall have less than 50% of the shares owned or controlled by foreign nationals/companies, if any, with or without management or control vested in foreign nationals or companies.

The Chief Executive Officer of the applicant company must be a resident Pakistani.

The applicant, directly or indirectly, already holding any license(s) issued by the Authority, shall not be eligible for grant of license unless all outstanding dues in respect of such license(s) have been paid.

Any director or shareholder of one Applicant Company shall not be a director or shareholder in any other applicant company for DTH Distribution Service License.

The applicants must not already be a licensee who owns, controls or operates directly or indirectly any broadcast media license or landing rights permission

The applicant shall demonstrate universal service objectives.

Short listing of Applicant Companies:

The applicant companies shall be shortlisted as per the above criteria as per provisions of PEMRA Laws on the basis of the documents/information provided by them. Incomplete applications may not be entertained.

Short listing of Applicant Company, however, shall not guarantee grant of license. The license shall be granted to the successful bidders only after fulfillment of all legal requirements, approval of Authority and payment of requisite fees and taxes.

Shortlisting does not include security clearance, public hearing and provincial concurrence. These shall be done for all shortlisted applicants after completion of the bidding process and before grant of the licence.

PEMRA reserves the right to seek any information and clarification or any additional documentation from any applicant company or its shareholding or holding / parent company within such time as it may deem fit. If the applicant company fails to provide such information & clarification within the stipulated time, its application may be rejected without any further processing.

The shortlisted applicant companies shall be invited to participate in the bidding. The applicant company shall participate in the bidding as per bidding procedure given in regulation 10 below.

Bidding Procedure:

Shortlisted companies that participate in the bidding shall provide a separate Power of Attorney, on stamp paper and executed, notarized, witnessed, stamped and authenticated as required by law, for the person representing the company in the bidding process (Schedule-G). The company shall be bound by the decisions of that person so authorized or having power of attorney in matters connected to the bidding.

A maximum of two representatives per company shall be allowed to participate in the bidding.

If less than three shortlisted bidders appear on the bidding date, the matter shall be referred to the Authority for decision, and the Authority shall decide within thirty (30) calendar days whetherto declare the bidder or bidders provisionally successful or not.

The decision of the Authority shall be final.

The Bidding Committee, duly constituted by the Authority, shall conduct the bidding process. In case of any dispute during the bidding process, the decision of the Bidding Committee shall be final.

The bidding shall consist of the following two rounds:

First Round through sealed bids

Second Round through open outcry

The second round shall start immediately after the first round.

Only authorized persons of the shortlisted applicant companies shall be allowed to participate in the bidding process on provision of the authorization letter.

The bids shall be offered in Pak Rupees.

The conditional bids, having ‘ifs’ and ‘buts,’ shall out-rightly be rejected.

License Fee

The successful bidders may choose to pay the license fee upfront or in installments as per following options:

Upfront: 100% payment

Installments: an upfront payment of the balance towards 50% of the applicable license fee, and the remaining amount in 10 years in 10 equal annual installments with a cumulative mark-up rate at the KIBOR rate, applied from the period of the date the upfront payment is due to the payment date.

The successful bidders may pay the remaining balance of the Applicable License Fee at any time in advance of the scheduled installment, along with payment of cumulative mark-up up to such date of payment.