The much awaited spectrum auction for 5G services is likely in the next fiscal with telecom regulator Trai to submit its recommendation by March.

However, the budget document showed that the government expects around a 27 per cent fall in revenue from the telecom sector at Rs 52,806.36 crore in 2022-23 against the higher-than-expected Rs 71,959.24 crore it earned in the current fiscal .

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will launch a design-led production linked incentive scheme for local manufacturing of 5G telecom equipment. “A scheme for design led manufacturing will be launched soon to build an ecosystem.”

Telecom minister Ashwani Vaishnaw had said that the “recommendation on 5G (by Trai) was expected by March” and the department of telecom is working in parallel on other auction-related processes to start the spectrum auction at the earliest.

In contrast to the expected fall in revenue collections in the next fiscal, the government had earned Rs 71,960cr in this fiscal much higher than its previous estimate of Rs 53,986.72 crore .

The higher earnings in 2021-22 were due to a sizeable advance payments by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel towards past spectrum auctions, “Besides, the government received some money relating to the March 2021 spectrum sale in 2021-22,” analysts said.

Last month, Jio paid Rs 30,791 crore, clearing all dues towards spectrum bought in auctions before March 2021.