Rs 4,469 cr bills of BSNL, MTNL unpaid

State-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL have to recover a massive Rs 4,469 crore (Rs 44.69 billion) outstanding dues from states, centre, defence establishments and private subscribers, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

While BSNL has total outstanding dues of Rs 3245.63 crore (Rs 32.45 billion), MTNL has total outstanding of Rs 1223.82 crore (Rs 12.23 billion), Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications and IT said.

The dues are mainly from private subscribers who owe Rs 3074.87 crore (Rs 30.74 billion) to BSNL and Rs 1200.96 crore (Rs 12 billion) to MTNL.

The central government owes Rs 25.72 crore (Rs 257.2 million) and Rs 15.28 crore (Rs 152.8 million) to BSNL and MTNL respectively.

Various state governments have to pay Rs 137.72 crore (Rs 1.37 billion) to BSNL and Rs 3.42 crore (Rs 34.2 million) to MTNL.

Defence organisations owe to Rs 7.32 crore (Rs 73.2 million) and Rs 4.16 crore (Rs 41.6 million) to the two PSUs, according to the information tabled.

Ahmad said various steps are being taken to recover and the dues by disconnecting telephones, filing civil suits and appointing recovery agents.

To another query, Ahmad said government was not considering any proposal to privatise the postal services.

The work relating to computerisation to connect all post offices across the country would be completed by the end of the tenth plan period, he said.