Vsnl Owes Mtnl, Bsnl Rs 700 Crore

Tatas-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) owes state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) about Rs 700 crore as dues for routing international calls though the latter's networks since April 2002, the government said today.

Pramod Mahajan, Union minister for communications and parliamentary affairs, said here today, "BSNL claims that VSNL has to pay it Rs 125 crore a month which has not been paid since April 2002." This situation has arisen after the expiry of the interconnect agreement with BSNL and MNTL in March, 2002.

However, a VSNL executive refuted the figure and said: "The actual amount outstanding by our estimates is far less. There is a schedule for payment worked out between carriers. We are paying as per this agreed schedule."

 

Mahajan pointed out that despite the interconnect agreement not being in place, the two telecom operators were still routing VSNL's international traffic.

"However, every business relationship require agreements to be in place," he added.

The impasse over the interconnect agreement between VSNL and the MTNL-BSNL combine continues with senior Union ministers deciding to meet on October 5 to resolve the issue. Mahajan said the October 1 deadline was not applicable anymore, and added that no unilateral decision would be taken.

"BSNL and MTNL have told me that they have signed the interconnect pacts with Bharti, Data Access and Reliance Infocomm and would like to have a similar agreement in place with VSNL," he added.

Deputy prime minister LK Advani, finance minister Jaswant Singh, disinvestments minister A Shourie and Mahajan met yesterday to resolve the issue on inter-connect agreement. However, the meeting was inconclusive due to the terrorist attack in Gujarat. "The discussions were inconclusive as reports of the incidents in Gujarat were coming in. We have now decided to meet on October 5," Mahajan said.

BSNL and MTNL have said VSNL should match the Rs 18 a minute revenue-share offered by the new international long-distance entrants on a Rs 24 per minute overseas call. Bharti Telesonic offers Rs 15 per minute to BSNL and MTNL, and Rs 8 to the international operator, retaining just Re 1.

But according to VSNL's agreement, MTNL or BSNL was to get only Rs 13, the international operator Rs 9 and VSNL Rs 2.