Govt to meet Rs 40k cr target from communications

The government will meet its revenue target of over Rs 40,847 crore in 2013-14 from the communication services, mainly on account of the recently concluded telecom spectrum auction and related charges.

The government had estimated a revenue of Rs 40,847.05 crore from communication, which included receipts from spectrum sale, licence fees and one-time spectrum charges.

The Interim Budget 2014-15 presented to Parliament today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram has listed Rs 40,874.06 crore as the Revised Estimate for the current fiscal ending March 31.

For the financial year 2014-15, the government expects a revenue of Rs 38,954.02 crore from other communication services, as per the Budget proposals.

"Receipts under 'Other Communication Services' mainly relate to one-time spectrum charges levied as per the recommendations of TRAI, Auction of 1800 MHz and 900 MHz spectrum and receipts from 800 MHz spectrum," said the budget document.

"Department of Telecom collects recurring licence fees from various telecom operators licensed by it. It also collects one time entry fees from new operators," it added.

The auction of 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz bands, which lasted 10 days, fetched the government Rs 61,162 crore, of which Rs 18,296.36 crore will flow to the exchequer within this fiscal.

The government was initially expecting only Rs 11,300 crore to come from the spectrum auction in the current year.

The government had put on the block about 385 MHz of radiowaves in the 1800 MHz band, and 46 MHz in the 900 MHz band. At the base price, that cumulatively amounted to about Rs 47,933 crore.