The government has made a provision of collecting a whopping Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) from the auction of third-generation radio spectrum.
The Budget estimate of 2009-10 includes a sum of Rs 35,000 crore as expected revenue from auction of 3G spectrum, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Budget papers.
The department of telecommunication collects spectrum charges akin to royalty for the use of spectrum as well as the licence fee for possession of wireless equipment from service providers having telecom service license.
Just few days before the Budget, government had decided to fix the reserve price at Rs 4,040 crore (Rs 40.4 billion) and allow seven operators to offer 3G mobile services.
The auction, when happens would allow telecom firms to offer services such as high-speed Internet and video downloads on mobile phones.
Telecom minister A Raja has already said the auction could happen by December. The government had initially aimed to get Rs 20,000-25,000 crore (Rs 200-250 billion).
The sale has been deferred twice. The finance ministry wanted the floor price of the auction to be Rs 4,040 crore double of what the DoT had suggested.
According to the guidelines, the government planned to conduct auction for 20 of India's 22 telecom zones and had said companies could bid for four slots in most of these areas.
