The government has postponed to the next fiscal auction of spectrum for 3G telephony which was expected to bring in 35,000 crore rupees to the exchequer. Senior officials in the Department of Telecom say that the auction is expected to take place in August-September this year. The Ministry of Defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during middle of this year. The Empowered Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, had decided to allow four private telecom firms for the next generation mobile telephone services (3G) and had made a provision for garnering up to 35,000 crore rupees from the sale of airwaves in the current fiscal.