New Delhi, Dec 7 : The government earned Rs. 8,307.85 crore from mobile telecom operators through licence fee in 2008-09 and Rs. 4,112.3 crore in the first half this fiscal, a union minister said Monday.

Telecom operators pay 6 to 10 percent of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the government as licence fee, Minister of State for Telecom and IT Gurudas Kamat told parliament.

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile phone operator by users, paid the maximum licence fee of Rs. 2,246.27 crore last fiscal.

Kamat said the government's earnings were rising as the country's telcom industry was fast expanding its operations.

The government earned Rs. 7,290 crore from the sector during 2007-08, up from Rs. 5,989 crore it collected the year earlier.

The minister added that there was no plan to appoint an ombudsman for the telecom industry to redress complaints of poor mobile telephony services.(IANS)