New Delhi: The deadlock over payment of STD traffic dues between BSNL and MTNL continued with both sides sticking to their earlier positions with regard to the payment, which according to BSNL is Rs 1,062 crore.
While BSNL officials maintained during the discussions that MTNL had not been paying any STD traffic dues for the last five years and for 2005-06, this figure stood at Rs 1,062 crore, MTNL said out of this amount only about Rs 400 crore is undisputable.
BSNL sources said MTNL's position was that out of the remaining Rs 660 crore, Rs 250 crore has to be adjusted with an earlier BSNL demand of Rs 1,840 crore, which after Department of Telecom's (DoT) intervention got reduced to Rs 266 crore. The remaining amount is disputed.
While MTNL officials were not available for their comment, a senior department of telecom official said BSNL's demand for five years of payment is unreasonable and only the payment for 2005-06 has to be taken into account and if both the sides failed to reach out at a solutions, DoT would have to step in to decide the payable amount.
Sources said DoT has asked both the PSUs to "conduct themselves" and DoT secretary J S Sarma may meet them tomorrow or on Monday for a resolution.
However, DoT was in full support of MTNL's steps to get a lower rate for carrying its STD traffic saying these are "commercial decisions" and expects BSNL to match the competitive tariffs and if need arises to cancel to tender to accommodate a reconciliation that MTNL invited today for carriage cost quotes.
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