Pay transit charge dues, BSNL tells Tata, Reliance

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd today issued orders to all its circles to recover dues towards transit charges of Rs 0.19 per minute for its cellular services from Tata Teleservices and Reliance Infocomm.

The PSU's executives, however, refused to divulge the amount that was likely to be recovered from the two companies.

Last year, Tata Teleservices had approached the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) seeking relief against disconnection on account of non-payment of 19 paise per minute to the PSU (BSNL) towards transit charges.

BSNL pointed out to its offices across the country that the TDSAT in its final judgment had dismissed Tatas' petition and therefore the restraint order against disconnection for non-payment of dues was no more in existence.

The PSU added that a similar case of Reliance Infocomm before TDSAT claiming a similar benefit had also been dismissed.

This implies the PSU can raise bills against private mobile operators at the rate of 19 paise per minute for landing calls from their network to BSNL's mobile network "" CellOne.

"Accordingly, it has become obligatory on the part of BSNL that in each of the circles where Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd (TTML) have not paid the bills on this account, to recover and secure all due payments forthwith and without any delay," BSNL said.

"You are therefore requested to carry out this obligation by securing payments of all the requisite charges from the interconnect user charge bills of TTSL and TTML in the current billing cycle," BSNL added.

BSNL has also clarified to its circle heads that interconnect bills for the point of interconnect would continue to be raised to the these operators "" TTSL, TTML and Reliance Infocomm, including the applicable transit charges wherever direct connectivity is still to be achieved.