The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has rejected the communications and IT ministry's decision to slash the licence fee for telecom operators by up to a third, stating that the ministry did not obtain the union cabinet's clearance before announcing the cut. In 2008, DoT had announced that the licence fee paid by operators as a proportion of revenue would be cut by up to 33 per cent from April 1, 2009, if operators' services were available in 95 per cent of the residential areas in a telecom circle. According to the PMO, had the proposal been placed before the cabinet, it would not have been cleared due to opposition from the finance ministry's departments of expenditure and economic affairs.