India aims $6.27 billion in telecoms sector fees in 2014/15

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India aims to raise 389.54 billion rupees in revenue from the telecoms sector, including proceeds from airwave auctions, during the next fiscal year beginning April 1, the government said in its interim budget on Monday.

The government has plans to sell airwaves in three bands during the next fiscal year, it said in the budget, an interim exercise ahead of the election due by May.

That would follow a $10 billion airwave auction this month, from which the government will get at least $3 billion in this fiscal year ending March 31, far higher than its $1.8 billion target.

The 2014/15 revenue target of the government also includes the recurring annual fees paid by telecommunication carriers and a one-time fee levied on airwaves that is still under dispute.

The government will be able to meet its 408.47 billion-rupee telecoms revenue target for this fiscal year, thanks to higher-than-expected bids in the airwave auction offsetting the revenue loss from the disputed one-time fee that was not collected.

Separately, the government announced a new tax structure for mobile phones that would effectively cut sharply the factory-gate duty on mobile phones that are manufactured locally. Most of the more than 200 million phones sold annually in India are imported from overseas.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Anand Basu)