The government could manage to raise only Rs 65,789 crore from the spectrum auctions, just a fraction of the Rs 5.63 trillion (at base price) of spectrum put up for sale in the auction. Against a total of 2353 MHz spectrum put up for sale, the government managed to sell only around 965 MHz in this sale. The government had mopped up a record Rs 1.1 lakh crore in the last spectrum auctions, but failed to have a strong response this year.

“This is the highest (upfront payment) in all the auctions in the last five years. Because of this, the DoT is on track to meet revenue expectations for this year,” he added.