Revenue from communication services pegged at Rs 42,865 cr

The government expects a revenue Rs 42,865.62 crore from communication services in FY 2016, which include proceeds from spectrum auction and other charges levied by the Department of Telecom.
The estimated receipts from communication services in the Budget proposals presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today are lower than the revised estimates for the current fiscal at Rs 43,161.72 crore.
The government has earlier estimated revenue of Rs 45,471.02 crore in 2014-15.
"Receipts under other communications services mainly relate to one-time spectrum charges levied as per recommendations of TRAI, auction of 1,800 Mhz (megahertz) and 900 Mhz spectrum and receipts from 800 Mhz spectrum," the Budget document said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) collects recurring licence fees from various telecom operators and also collects one time entry fee from new operators, the document said.
The DoT is scheduled to start spectrum auction for four bands from March 4.

Based on the reserve price, the government estimated to garner over Rs 82,000 crore from the sale of radiowaves for providing 2G and 3G services in the upcoming auction.
The government plans to sell 380.75 MHz of spectrum in the three bands - the premium 900 MHz band, 1800 MHz and 800 MHz, besides 5 Mhz in the 2100 Mhz band across 17 out of 22 telecom areas.

The government had raked in Rs 62,162 crore from the last spectrum auction in February 2014.