Telecom spectrum auction likely in Sept: Manoj Sinha

Cabinet has approved base price in seven bands, sector regulator to give its views on spectrum usage charge soon

The government expects to conduct the biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum in September, expecting to garner Rs 5.66 lakh crore.

“We will take it ahead in a transparent manner," said Manoj Sinha, new minister for the department.

The Cabinet has approved the base price of spectrum in seven bands and the sector regulator will give its views on spectrum usage charge in the coming days.

In this financial year, the government expects to raise at least Rs 64,000 crore from the auction of about 2,300 MHz of spectrum and Rs 98,995 crore from various levies and services in the sector.  Meeting the media for the first time after taking charge earlier this week, the minister said a long-term strategy would be readied by the end of this month on addressing the problem of drops in mobile telephone calls. Multiple improvements were expected in a few months.

Regarding Congress allegations on unrecovered revenue from companies, he said these related to the time when the Congress was running the government. “It is their sin and we will do the work of cleaning it. We will do every bit to recover every single penny,” he said.