NEW DELHI: The Finance Ministry has turned down the request of the Communications & Information Technology Ministry seeking for reimbursement of spectrum charges paid towards 3G spectrum by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).

Minister of State for Communications and IT Ministry Sachin Pilot told Parliament that the Finance Ministry has said that the terms of allotment of spectrum were clear to both BSNL and MTNL that they would have to pay a one time spectrum fee at a price equal to the highest bid as determined through the auction of 3G services which was also incorporated in the Notice Inviting Application (NIA) for the auction and also to maintain level playing field with other service providers.
  
The Government earned Rs 1062.6226 billion from the recent auctions of 3G and Band Width Access (BWA). 
 
The revenue is more than three times the target of Rs 350 billion fixed by the Finance Ministry in its budget documents and more than five times the reserve price.