VSNL profits rise

MUMBAI, July 13: The state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) has reported a sharp 91.76 per cent jump in profit after tax for the year 1997-98 to Rs 967.91 crore from Rs 504.74 crore during the previous year.According to the audited financial results (pending approval from CAG) announced by the company, its turnover during the period has increased by 21.77 per cent to Rs 6,436.13 crore from Rs 5,285.30 crore. The VSNL board has recommended a dividend of Rs 4 per share. Earlier the company had announced its unaudited financial results when it had reported a 78.03 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 898.40 crore and a 21.01 per cent increase in turnover to Rs 6,395.90 crore.

During the year, VSNL’s volume of telephony traffic increased by 21.66 per cent to 1,685 million paid minutes from 1,385 million paid minutes. Revenues from specialised value added services increased by 53.12 per cent to Rs 270.73 crore from Rs 176.82 crore representing 4.46 per cent of the company’s total revenue.

VSNL commissionedtwo new gateways at Ernakulam and Jallandar and is planning to set up earth stations at Kanpur, Chandigarh and Goa shortly. The company also recently tied up global software major, Microsoft, to offer a new service to its Internet subscribers wherein they could download the latest versions of popular Microsoft software making it India’s first local download site.

"The results of the company reaffirm the consistent and growing performance by VSNL even in the face of industrial slowdown in the economy," said Amitabh Kumar, acting chairman and managing director of VSNL. According to the company, the government’s recent policy announcement on uplinking of video is expected to add significantly to its revenues.