The government has constituted Committee of Secretaries to explore a financial bailout package for the telecom sector by lowering spectrum charges and ending the era of free mobile phone calls and dirt cheap data as companies look at the government for avoiding payment of thousands of crores in overdue statutory levies.

The CoS, headed by Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, has been asked to examine “all aspects of financial stress” faced by service providers, such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea, and suggest measures to mitigate these, sources in the Department of Telecommunications said.