Sinha: Looking ahead

New Delhi April 25: Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) will invest Rs 2000 crore in the next two to three years to expand its mobile and broadband networks.

The mobile telephone major, offering services in Delhi and Mumbai, has set a target to add 5 lakh broadband customers and about 10 million mobile customers during the next couple of years. At present, MTNL has about one lakh broadband customers and 5 million mobile customers.

The public sector telecom major registered a 5.26 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 323.27 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005. The company had generated a revenue of Rs 307 crore during the same period last year.

However, for the full year to March 31, the telecom major registered a 17.76 per cent dip in net profit at Rs 946.04 crore compared with Rs 1150.47 crore last year. Total income also decreased to Rs 6001.89 crore for the year ended March 31, 2005 from Rs 6683.93 crore in 2003-04.

Speaking to The Telegraph, MTNL chairman and managing director R. S. P. Sinha said, ?The low net profit was due to the ADC impact, this is a drain on our revenues. We will sustain this growth but not for long. There is a discrimination and we have approached the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) and hope that our prayers will be heard.?

Access deficit charge (ADC) is a charge operators pay to fund those operators offering telecom service as social obligations set by the government, like offering telephones in rural areas and inaccessible areas at higher infrastructure cost.

?But we are confident of the investment plans that will be more than Rs 2000 crore during the next 2 to 3 years and will be pumped in to expand broadband and mobile networks,? said Sinha.

MTNL?s total income increased by 4.59 per cent at Rs 1657.61 crore during the fourth quarter of 2004-05 as against Rs 1584.76 crore during the same period last year.

HCL Technologies

Strong performance by business process outsourcing and infrastructure services division enabled HCL Technologies to post a 25 per cent year-on-year increase in net profit in the third quarter ended March 31, 2005 at Rs 157.2 crore on a consolidated basis.

The revenue of the company during the quarter grew 31.9 per cent compared with last year at Rs 858.22 crore.

The company has declared a 200 per cent interim dividend on each share of face value Rs 2 for the third quarter, taking the total dividend paid so far during the fiscal to 600 per cent. In total the company will pay Rs 135 crore as dividend for the third quarter.

HCl added 18 new clients in the third quarter taking the total number of active clients to 489.