Auction may help govt meet revenue target of Rs 40,000 cr: MF Farooqui

NEW DELHI: The government is expected to achieve the revenue target of Rs 40,000 crore from spectrum sale this fiscal, telecom secretary MF Farooqui said on Thursday. “Hopefully, we will achieve theRs 40,000-crore revenue target from auction,” Farooqui said after meeting economic affairs secretary Arvind Mayaram.

The third round of spectrum auction will start from January 23. The government had set a total revenue target of Rs 40,874.5 crore this fiscal from spectrum, including auction amount, one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee.

DoT has already issued the notice inviting application (NIA) for the upcoming auction. As per the timeline mentioned in NIA, interested companies can submit their applications January 4.

The DoT also held a pre-bid conference on December 20. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) had recommended up to 60% cut in the auction reserve price for spectrum in the 900 MHz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata circles. It had also suggested 37% cut in the reserve price for spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.

However, Telecom Commission, the highest decisionmaking body of DoT, had recommended raising reserve price of pan-India mobile phone spectrum by 15%over the one suggested by Trai.