Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications JS Deepak on Wednesday said that it will process the merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone quickly after the companies apply for approvals.

Deepak told BusinessLine in an interaction that the proposal is yet to reach the DoT.

“We haven’t got anything as of now. It has not come to DoT, and as and when they seek clearances we will process them quickly,” Deepak said in the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress. This assumes significance in the wake of complaints that the Centre took too much time in processing mergers & acquisition proposals. On spectrum auction, Deepak said that the DoT has sought recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

“We are seeking a recommendation from TRAI, based on which we will decide what bands to auction, how much spectrum to auction and at what price. All those decisions will be taken going forward,” he added.

The licensor wants to auction spectrum every year so that telecom companies get an opportunity to buy the airwaves. The operators, however, seem to be in no hurry to buy any more spectrum given that the current pricing is too high.

Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal had recently said that he did not expect another round of auction this year. Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania had said that the industry has enough spectrum for now.

On the new telecom policy - National Telecom Policy, Deepak said the DoT is working on various issues, but declined to provide further details.