Govt lowers FY23 revenue from telecom to `52,806 cr

New Delhi: The government has lowered its estimates of revenue from the telecom segment to Rs 52,806 crore for the next financial year, according to the budget document released on Tuesday. The receipt budget, however, expects to beat the budget estimates of Rs 53,986.72 crore for the current fiscal and collect Rs 71,959.24 crore.

The receipt from communication services includes licence fees from telecom operators and receipts on account of spectrum usage charges which are charged at the rate of 8 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue.

The government has received Rs 45,500 crore from the telecom services till date, according to the budget document.

Moreover, the government will conduct a spectrum auction this year, which will facilitate the roll-out of 5G services by private telecom operators during the financial year 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said

on Tuesday.

"Spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate the roll-out of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers," Sitharaman said. She said the telecommunications sector in general and 5G, in particular, can enable growth and offer job opportunities.

"A scheme for design-led manufacturing will be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the production-linked incentive scheme," Sitharaman said.

She said that to enable affordable broadband and mobile service proliferation in rural and remote areas, 5 per cent of annual collections under the universal service obligation fund will be allocated.

"This will promote R&D and commercialisation of technologies and solutions. Our mission is that all villages and their residents should have the same access to e-services, communication facilities and digital resources as urban areas and their residents," the Finance Minister said. She added that the contract for laying optical fibre in all villages, including remote areas, will be awarded through the BharatNet project through PPP in 2022-23.

"Completion is expected in 2025. Measures will be taken to enable better and more efficient use of the optical fibre," she said.

Meeanwhile, the Telecom Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw on Tuesday said that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendation on 5G spectrum is expected to come by March, after which spectrum action will be held expeditiously for the rollout of the next generation service.