The Hindu Business Line : Panel for full refund of licence fee to BSNL

THE Parliamentary Standing Committee on information technology has recommended full refund of licence fee and spectrum charges paid by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd between 2001 and 2004.

The committee has also urged the Finance Ministry to increase the allocation of the Universal Services Fund. While the requirement was for Rs 2,700 crore, the Finance Ministry has provided Rs 200 crore to the corpus. Terming BSNL claims for a full licence fee refund as `justified', the committee said that the company has rendered an important national objective by providing rural telephony. The Government is yet to refund around Rs 6,000 crore collected from BSNL as licence fee.

However, the committee has said that BSNL must get its act together and optimise whatever resources it has in the face of stiff competition.

"BSNL should not be complacent and remain satisfied with having a mammoth subscriber base. It should take things seriously and make in-depth study to find out the real cause for large-scale disconnections," the committee said in its report. MTNL has also been pulled up for losing subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai.

The committee has also expressed its disapproval of the "escapist attitude" taken by private operators in circumventing the obligation for providing rural telephony.

"The committee takes serious note of the fact that the private operators took full advantage of such lacunae that existed in their contractual obligations, did not go for rural telephony and preferred the profitable route of escape by paying a paltry sum of Rs 53 crore as liquidated damages."

The committee has expressed concern at BSNL and MTNL's outstanding telephone bills, which has reached Rs 4,968 crore.