The telecom sector has contributed a total of Rs 1,87,904.40 crore during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. But, this was not enough.
The Standing Committee on Information Technology has asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to take initiatives to increase revenue receipts as most of its earnings during the 11th Five-Year Plan came from the auction of 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum in 2010-11 and the one-time fee levied on the telecom operators in 2007-08.
According to the 41st report of the Standing Committee on Information Technology, the government’s revenue receipts, excluding the auction revenue and one-time fee, from the telecom sector increased marginally year-on-year during the 11th Five-Year Plan period.
In 2010-11, the government had earned Rs 1,06,264.70 crore from the auction of 3G and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum and Rs 12,499.43 crore came from one-time fee levied on the telecom operators in 2007-08.
During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the DoT has earned Rs 50,221.96 crore as licence fee and Rs 18,918.29 crore as spectrum charges. But, if compared year-on-year changes of these two components, the increase was marginal. (See chart)
Meanwhile, Pranab Mukherjee, then finance minister, now President, had announced in this year’s Union Budget that the government would raise Rs 40,000 crore (the target was later lowered to Rs 30,000 crore) from spectrum auction.
In reality, the first round of 2G spectrum auction fetched the government just Rs 1,706 crore this year. It is, however, expecting Rs 20,000 crore in the second round of auction but the telecom companies need to pay only 33% of the bid amount in the current year. Even that would keep the total collections this year around Rs 10,000 crore, unless telecom companies decide to pay upfront.
According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data released recently, the government’s earning from licence fees, excluding ILD, NLD and ISPs, and VSAT, dropped 6.3% to Rs 2,301 crore during the quarter ended September, against Rs 2,456 crore the previous quarter. It earned licence fees of Rs 2,839 crore in the quarter ended September, a drop of 1.8% over the previous one. Spectrum fees dropped 0.45% in the period.
| Item | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 | 2010-11 | 2011-12 |
| Licence fee | 8855.25 | 9510.83 | 9778.52 | 10286.43 | 11790.93 |
| Spectrum charges | 3056.58 | 3455.27 | 3809.54 | 3434.94 | 5161.96 |
| Licence fee-- One time entry fee | 12499.43 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Spectrum auction revenue | 0 | 0 | 0 | 106264.7 | 0 |
| (In Rs cr) Source: Standing Committee Report |