The government’s revenue mop-up from the telecom sector fell by about 22 per cent in the 2017-18 fiscal, owing to a decline in the earnings of service providers from sale of services, Parliament was informed on Friday.
The government collects licence fee and spectrum usage charge (SUC) as a percentage of revenue earned by telecom service providers from the sale of telecom services. “The adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-based SUC receipts have declined due to declining AGR,” Union Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
In 2017-2018, the industry’s AGR declined by 18.62 per cent to ₹1,30,844.9 crore from ₹1,60,787.9 crore in the previous fiscal.
This resulted in lower licence fees and SUC for the government.
The government’s revenue from licence fee declined 18.12 per cent to ₹10,670.6 crore in 2017-18, from ₹13,032.9 crore in 2016-17.
Drop in SUC
The SUC, which is calculated based on the quantum of radiowaves allocated to mobile operators, dipped by over 29 per cent to ₹4,983.75 crore in 2017-18 from ₹7,048 crore in the preceding financial, according to data shared by the telecom Minister.