CAG report pulls up BSNL

New Delhi, Apr 26 (UNI) The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report today said state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) suffered a revenue loss of Rs 275 crore due to non-availability of recharge coupons, top up cards in Uttar Pradesh (West) Circle and delay in expansion of networks in the west zone of the country.

The report, that was tabled in parliament today, further stated that the largest telecom failed to recover/levy penalty of Rs 28 crore from vendors for delays in rectification of faults during warranty and annual maintenance charge (AMC) period.

It further criticised BSNL for poor performance of Interactive Voice Response system equipped call centers that led to termination of 24 to 40 per cent customers' calls without being answered during 2004-07 leading to customer dissatisfaction.

The quality of mobile services remained unsatisfactory due to poor network coverage, system failures, low signals or no signals, call dropping, not attending to the customers' complaints, etc.

Beside, BSNL was unable to meet various quality service benchmarks prescribed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), added the CAG report.

The report also came down heavily on state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) cellular services in Delhi and Mumbai saying it did not implement the credit control module in billing and customer care system resulting in accumulation of outstanding dues and a possible loss of Rs 40.15 crore.

The company procured a new billing and customer care system at a time when a more advanced convergent billing system capable of handling the entire range of customer care and billing solutions was scheduled to be launched, the report said.

It further added information technology related controls like exclusive security policy, business continuity plan and disaster recovery plans were not implemented by the company for its GSM services.

UNI