Government to hold spectrum auction in September; expects to raise Rs 64,000 crore

Government expects to hold the mega spectrum auction in September, through which it hopes to garner Rs. 5.66 lakh crores, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said on Friday. The minister, who took charge earlier this week, said: “We expect spectrum auction to be finalised in September.” Last month, the Union Cabinet had approved the spectrum auction plan. The government expects to raise at least Rs. 64,000 crores from the auction of about 2300MHz of spectrum and Rs. 98,995 crores from various levies and services in the telecom sector. On call drops, where the industry and the government have been at the loggerheads, Sinha assured that he expects “qualitative progress” on the issue in coming 5-6 months. “Department of Telecom will work on the framework for providing relief from call drops in the long term,” he said, adding the issue will be discussed in next 15-20 days. Asked about Congress’ allegations of a telecom scam, he said, “Whatever happened in the past has nothing to do with this government.” “Since the time this government has come in power, there has been no such complaints. The process of recovering money from telecom operators will be completed in definite time,” he added. PTI