VSNL revenue declines by 11%

BANGALORE: VSNL revenues has dropped by 11 per cent for the financial year,

2001-02 as it posted a total revenue of Rs 7111.8 crore. It had registered a

revenue of Rs 7965.9 crore. The decline has been reasoned "mainly due to

significant reduction in settlement rates and significant reduction in tariffs

with respect to IPLC and Internet services," by a company’s press

release.

The net profit for the year ended 31st March 2002, was at Rs 1407.4 crore as

compared to Rs 1778.8 crore in the last fiscal, thereby declining by 20 per

cent.

The company handled 3.1 billion minutes of international telephony traffic

during the year 2001-02, exhibiting a growth of 16 per cent over the previous

year and its Internet subscriber base grew by 11 per cent from 5.29 lakhs, last

year to 5.87 lakhs as on 31st March 2002.

The board recommended a total dividend payout of Rs 87.50 per share. This

includes a special interim dividend of Rs 75 per share paid out of the reserves

of the company as per the approval obtained from the central government and Rs

12.50 per share out of the profits of the year.

The VSNL board, has also decided to invest upto Rs 1200 crore in Tata

Teleservices Ltd. The strategic investment will be in line with the company’s
initiative to reach out to the end customers.






VSNL, managing director, S K Gupta said "VSNL has once again demonstrated
all round impressive performance which is reflected in traffic growth as well as

growth in other value added services. Our performance assumes great importance

as VSNL has been able to achieve considerable physical growth in spite of

significant reduction in settlement rates, increasing competition and

substantial reduction in tariffs in respect of its value added services during

the year. VSNL continued to be the dominant player in the ISP segment and added

significant customer base in this year resulting in growth by 11 per cent".