The Cabinet is likely to consider tomorrow levying one-time fee of around Rs 31,000 crore for the spectrum that incumbent telecom companies hold.
Sources said the one-time spectrum fee, as recommended by the Empowered Group of Ministers, has been listed as one of the agenda items for the Cabinet meeting tomorrow.
The EGoM has proposed to the Cabinet that a one-time fee on spectrum held by operators beyond initial allocation of 4.4 Mhz in case of GSM and above 2.5 Mhz in case of CDMA operators should be levied.
The EGoM decided that the surcharge on operators with more than 6.2 MHz would have to be paid as per 2001-indexed price (Rs 1,658 crore) for four years beginning 2008, they added.
For rest of the licence period, telecom operators will be asked to pay market determined value of spectrum which will be derived through spectrum auction starting November 12, sources said.
The government has estimated that if spectrum gets sold at minimum price fixed by it, then national exchequer will gain around Rs 30,927 crore by way of one-time spectrum charge.
In the total amount, public sector telecom companies BSNL and MTNL will have to shell out Rs 11,818 and for private players it should amount to Rs 19,109 crore. But with failure of CDMA spectrum the estimates of government may go down.
EGoM, sources said, is of view that payment from operators should be taken in 10 annual instalments.
The Cabinet is likely to discuss tomorrow the funding for Rs 20,000 crore of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) that aims to connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with broadband internet.
Sources said that spectrum-related proposal inlcude allocation of GSM spectrum to Tata Teleservices at old rate in Delhi circle after completion of auction process, subject to availability of airwaves.