New Delhi, Oct 08: State-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) on Tuesday announced a net profit of Rs 877.15 crore for the year ended March 31, 2003 and declared a dividend of 45 per cent. The dividend, which is the same as last year's, amounts to Rs 159.46 crore, a MTNL release said.

MTNL said it was able to contain the impact on its revenues to 5.5 per cent despite cut in tariff on domestic and international calls.
The company reduced tariffs of national long distance calls by 60 per cent from February 2002 and by 40 per cent from March 2003.
Tariffs on international long distance calls were also cut by 40 per cent from July 2002.
In 2002-03, MTNL's basic telephone subscribers went up by 102,514, Internet customers by 88,619, cellular mobile subscribers by 69,742 and subscribers including FWT and CORDECT by 47,844. Bureau Report