India's state-owned telecom service major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to invest over Rs 17,000 crore (Rs 170 billion) to expand its network during the current financial year.
The major area of expansion has been identified as the mobile phones and a 60 million tender for GSM lines has been floated by the company.
The company has over 2 crore (20 million) mobile subscribers and its net switching capacity is about 6 crore (60 million). In the next three years the company plans to double its net switching capacity.
The company has invested Rs 8,892 crore (Rs 88.92 billion) in the expansion of the telecom network and new addition of telephone lines during the last financial year.
BSNL has also emerged as the largest service tax payer in India contributing more than Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) to the government exchequer by way of taxes and levies.
BSNL has declared a dividend of Rs 1,175 crore (Rs 11.75 billion), which is inclusive of interim dividend of Rs 375 crore (Rs 3.75 billion) for the fiscal year 2005-06. The company has earned a net profit of Rs 8,940 crore (Rs 89.40 billion) on the revenue of Rs 40,177 crore (Rs 401.77 billion) for the year 2005-06.
The company has registered a net increase of 11.13% in revenue during the year. The operating profit of the company for the year was Rs 8270 crore (Rs 82.70 billion) showing a growth of 23.69% over the corresponding previous year.
The highlight of the performance in 2005-06 was the net addition of 8.2 million lines, including 7.7 million new cellular customers and launching of broadband services in all the major towns of the country. BSNL is the main telecom service provider to business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) industries in the country and also the largest service provider to the rural India.