Lok Sabha
The Minister of State for Communications & Information Technology, Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, informed the Lok Sabha today, in a written reply to a question by Shri Nikhil Kumar that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has reported net outstanding dues of Rs. 3345 crore as on 30th November, 2005, including the unpaid bills of November, 2005. The dues constitute about 1.63 per cent of total bills. The similar net outstanding dues of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) are Rs. 1174 crore as on 31.1.2006 which constitute 1.69 per cent of the concerned billed amount. While the outstanding dues, in terms of figures show an increasing trend, the amounts actually constitute a small fraction of the total amounts of related bills and show a declining trend in terms of percentages over the period of years, Dr. Ahmad said.
The Minister further informed the House that the collection of outstanding dues is the direct responsibility of BSNL and MTNL. The Government, however, monitors the performance of the two PSUs in this regard. BSNL and MTNL are inter-alia taking the following steps to recover their unpaid bills –
(i) Reminders/notices are sent to defaulters through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) by post.
(ii) Telephones whose bills remain unpaid beyond pay-by-date are disconnected within specified time.
(iii) Outstanding pursuit cells have been constituted in field units to monitor recovery.
(iv) Targets for liquidation of outstanding dues for different billing periods for each Circle/Metro District are fixed and reviewed from time to time.
(v) Private Recovery Agents are appointed to recover outstanding dues on commission basis.
(vi) In appropriate cases legal remedies are also adopted to realize the dues.
RM/AMA – 100306 Recovery USQ 2206