(a) whether a major objective for the incorporation of MTNL was to access the market to raise resources for the expansion programme of the DoT;
(b) if so, whether the budget proposals have imposed ceilings on how much resources could be raised by MTNL from the market each year;
(c) if so, the ceilings indicated during each of the last three years; and
(d) the tax and dividends paid by the MTNL to Government during the last three years, year-wise and head-wise?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS (SHRI TAPAN SIKDAR)
(a) One of the main objective for the incorporation of MTNL was to raise necessary financial resources for development needs for Telecommunication services in the areas managed by the MTNL and also for the other parts of the Telecommunication network in the country managed by erstwhile Department of Telecom Operations (DTO).
(b) & (c): To meet the gap between the internal resources and plan outlay of the erstwhile DTO, the requirements of bonds to be raised through MTNL are included in the budget proposals of the Department. The budgetted amount of bonds for the last 3 years are as follows:
Year BE (in crores)
1997-98 2741.00 1998-99 2291.00 1999-2000 977.63 2000-2001 2152.00During 1997-98 & 1998-99, though budgetted, bonds were not raised since the Department had enough internal resources to meet Plan outlay. In 1999-2000 since there was a shortfall in revenue, the requirement of bonds was revised to Rs. 3539.13 crores in RE 1999-2000.
Year Tax paid (Rs. In crores) Dividend (Rs. In crores)
1997-1998 Rs. 516.00 114.629 63 027 1998-1999 Rs. 602.00 106.311 8 220 1999-2000 Rs. 583.00 106.311 8 220