Telcos' debt at Rs 2.4 lakh cr at end of FY14

The share of public sector firms MTNL and BSNL stood at 7.6% of the total debt

Telecom service providers in India had a total debt of Rs 2,42,896 crore on their books in 2013-14, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in response to a question in the Lok Sabha.

The share of public-sector firms Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) stood at Rs 18,579 crore or 7.6 per cent of the total debt, Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

BSNL and MTNL’s debt stood at Rs 4,459 crore and Rs 14,120 crore, respectively, while that of other operators totalled Rs 2,24,317 crore in 2013-14, he added.

“The debt figures include long-term and short-term borrowings. The figures are based on audited/unaudited financial information submitted by financial information submitted by the service providers,” he said.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the sector had increased from $177.69 million in 2000-01 to $2.66 billion in April-December 2014, taking the total FDI inflow to $16.83 billion.

The minister also said the number of subscribers of the BSNL and MTNL declined between 2012 and 2014. “BSNL’s subscriber base has declined from 945.09 lakh (94.5 million) as on March 31, 2012 to 924 lakh (92.4 million) as on March 31, 2014 and further down to 781.28 lakh (78.1 million) as on January 31, 2015.”

For MTNL, the subscriber base decreased from 5.6 million in 2012 to 3.3 million in 2015. MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai circles, while BSNL covers the remaining 20 circles.

However, BSNL has seen its net loss come down from Rs 8,851 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 7,020 crore in 2013-14.

MTNL had reported a loss of Rs 4,109.78 crore in 2011-13, while posting a profit of Rs 7,825.13, mainly because of write-back of provisions on account of pensionary liabilities and spectrum amortisation costs, he said.

An amount of Rs 1,142.72 crore is outstanding against the private operators towards the payment of interconnect usage charges to BSNL.

“Out of this outstanding amount, Rs 1,002.92 crore is disputed and is sub-judice. The disputed amounts relate to CDR (call details record) issue, non-payment of SMS invoices and interest amount invoices on late payments,” he added.