With dues of about Rs 800 crore from its customers, state-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has decided to appoint “recovery agents” to get back its money.
This is a common practice for most private telcos or credit card companies, but state-owned companies have rarely done so. MTNL, though, had appointed such agents once earlier.
A senior official says the dues are high, comparable to one quarter’s revenue. MTNL had posted revenue of Rs 1,068 crore for the third quarter ended December 2010.
The dues are about 75 per cent of this. The amount of Rs 800 crore for Delhi and Mumbai has been pending from before 2007.
“The company has already issued a tender for inviting bids from recovery firms in the Mumbai circle, while another tender for Delhi will be issued soon on the same,” said an official. Adding: “The problems arise when people buy two SIM cards, change their address/location. We try to locate and recover the pending bill amount, but it is good to have private players doing this job, who will go to any extent to recover the dues.”
The recovery agents/firms will be paid commission on the basis of the amount. The contract is to be for a year and might be extended to two years. The selected bidders will have to recover a fixed minimum amount of Rs 1 lakh per month.
Due to increased competition with the private sector, the public sector firm is witnessing a decline in revenue and its market share. This performance also gets impacted by pension and other retirement benefits. MTNL has a subscriber base of about 5.2 million in Delhi and Mumbai.