BSNL, MTNL cash reserves at Rs 41,471 cr: Govt

Public sector telcos BSNL and MTNL together have Rs 41,471 crore cash on hand as of September 2009, the government said today.

As per the provisional and unaudited accounts, cash and bank balance of BSNL is 36,392.42 crore and MTNL is Rs 5,078.59 crore, minister of state for IT and telecom Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

He said the government has received Rs 3,248.57 crore as annual spectrum charges from the access services licence. This is in addition to the upfront entry fee for grant of unified access licence and annual licence fee as revenue share payable by the licensee separately.

The government admitted that BSNL and MTNL are losing market share in mobile segment due to intense competition and entry of new players with aggressive tariff plans.

Market share of BSNL has come down to 13.86 per cent in September from 21.5 per cent in March 2007 while that of MTNL is now 9.82 per cent from 13.39 per cent during the same period, he said.

The minister further said these two are the only operators offering 3G service and have accumulated subscribers 73,133 (BSNL) and 1.29 lakh (MTNL). But the growth in their 3G subscriber base has not been able to offset fall in the overall share in mobile market.