DoT worried over BSNL's dwindling quarterly revenue

Expressing concern over declining trend in its quarterly revenue, the government has asked state-run BSNL to take steps to check the fall in revenues.

In a letter to BSNL Chairman Kuldeep Goyal, Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura said: "The license fee payments up to second quarter made by BSNL vis-a-vis Budget estimates show a declining trend as compared to the previous year."

"This is matter of concern. You are requested to look at this and apprise Telecom Commission on how to check this declining trend," Behura, who is also the Chairman of the Commission, said.

DoT is alarmed over the decline in BSNL's revenues and its payment of quarterly licence fee to the government.

The telco's revenue dipped around 23 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the immediately preceding quarter.

The rapid decline in revenue in the first fiscal quarter is "alarming" and will "also affect the budgetary estimates of DoT for licence fee for the current year".

In FY07-08, BSNL's licence fee payments up to the second quarter stood at Rs 1,265.23 crore against the annual budget estimate of Rs 2,800 crore, which is 45.19 per cent of the total licence fees.

However, during the current financial year, the payments in the first two quarters amounted to only Rs 1,147.12 crore against the annual budget estimate of Rs 2,880 crore, which is around 40 per cent of the total licence fees.