Spectrum sale to fetch Rs 40,000 cr this fiscal

Despite getting lukewarm response from the earlier two auctions, the government on Monday said it is confident of meeting the revenue target of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from spectrum sale this fiscal.

"We will exceed whatever is the budget provision for the receipt of money from auction for this year...Rs 11,000 crore is the receipt (from the upcoming auction), what it means is the total amount will be much more than that...around Rs 40,000 crore," Telecom Secretary MF Farooqui said.

He was addressing the media on the forthcoming India Telecom-2013 meet to be held from December 5-7 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Farooqui said the government is hopeful that all the spectrum put on auction table would be sold out.

"We are very confident that these auctions are going to be successful and we are very confident all the spectrum that is to be auctioned will be sold," Farooqui said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended up to 60 per cent cut in the auction reserve price for spectrum in the 900 MHz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles. It had also suggested 37 per cent cut in the reserve price for spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.

However, Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body of Department of Telecom (DoT), had recommended raising reserve price of pan-India mobile phone spectrum by 15 per cent over the one suggested by Trai, and 25 per cent higher in case of key circles like Delhi and Mumbai.

The Empowered Group of Ministers has approved the price recommended by Telecom Commission.

DoT is likely to conduct the third round of spectrum auction by January. The Government had set a total revenue target of Rs 40,874.5 crore (Rs 408.74 billion) this fiscal from spectrum, including auction amount, one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee.

The government had got Rs 9,407.64 crore (Rs 94.07 billion) from the November auction last year and Rs 3,639 crore (Rs 36.39 billion) from the March auction. Farooqui said that the merger and acquisition guidelines are also expected to be finalised before the auctions.