New Delhi, Sept 02: In a partial relief to the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, government today approved a package including extension of reimbursement of licence fee and spectrum charges for a period of one year upto March 2004, which would result in saving of about Rs 3,000 crore to the corporation. The Cabinet has also approved a moratorium on payment of principal and interest on loan to be extended till March 2005, and the rate of interest on this loan would be re-examined by the Ministry of Finance.
"The quantum of dividend payable by BSNL has been left to be decided by the board of BSNL," an official spokesperson told reporters after the Cabinet meeting.
Reimbursement of licence fee and spectrum charges would be extended, to start with, by a period of one year beyond March 2003, that is upto March 2004.
In the meantime, an examination would be carried out jointly by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Communications as how to ensure that rural telephony and BSNL do not suffer.
The financial package was necessitated for BSNL fulfilling its rural telephony obligations.
The cash flow of BSNL had been further adversely affected on account of steep fall in international and national long distance tariffs, additional claims arising on BSNL's cash flow, and increase in establishment costs as a result of absorption of over 3.4 lakh Group C and D category employees on industrial dearness allowance pay scales.
Bureau Report