India rollbacks hike in fixed-line phone tariffs

By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 13 May 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) on Tuesday announced a partial roll-back in telephone tariffs by increasing the number of free calls per month. While BSNL increased free calls from 50 to 75 per month for rural subscribers and 30 to 50 for urban subscribers, MTNL announced that it would give 60 free calls every month as opposed to 30 announced earlier. BSNL also halved landline call charges to cellphones to Rs 1.20 per minute instead of Rs 1.20 for 30 seconds announced earlier. However, there would be no change in MTNL's tariff for calls from landline to cellphone. Communications Minister Arun Shourie told reporters that the twin roll-back would cost BSNL Rs 3,476 crore in revenues this year. The corporation would lose Rs 2,600 crore on account of change in pulse rate for calls from landline to cellphones while the loss on account of increasing free calls would be Rs 876 crore. For MTNL, increasing free calls would lead to a revenue loss of Rs 140 crore annually, he added. (News Updated)