BSNL, MTNL And Other Telecom PSU To Spend 6,464 Crore This Fiscal Year

NEW DELHI: Government has set a total expenditure target of 6,463.65 crore for telecom public sector units, including BSNL, MTNL, ITI, C-DoT and TCIL, this fiscal.

“The provisioned amount will be part of fresh capital expenditure that we will have to make in increasing our asset which includes network expansion and upgradation,” a top official of a state-run telecom operator told.

The government has earmarked Internal and Extra Budgetary Resources (IEBR) for BSNL at 5,132.19 crore, MTNL 808.46 crore, telecom product manufacturing unit ITI at Rs 461 crore, research unit Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) at 60 crore, 1 crore each for HPIL and Telecommunications Consultant India Limited (TCIL), according to an official document.

Separately, BSNL will get 100 crore as refund of upfront charges paid for spectrum to BSNL on surrender of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum from government.

In addition to this, government has earmarked 2,760 crore for laying out optical fibre based network for Defence Services. The project is being managed by BSNL. The target date for completion of network for defence is June 2015 but it is likely to get delayed.

BSNL last month issued advance purchase order of around 8,678 crore for 10 year contract to five companies for supplying and deploying optical fibres for the communication network of defence forces.

Government has allocated 461 crore to loss making Indian Telephone Industries (ITI) Limited for revival.
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