The Ministry of Communications and IT has exhorted the finance ministry to expedite the process of refunding an income tax payment of Rs 70 billion to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).The telecom ministry is of the view that the tax refund will revive the state-run telecom company before its proposed merger with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) in 2015.

Meanwhile, the Telecom Commission (TC) is taking steps to arrange a refund of Rs 67.94 billion for BSNL for surrendering 4G spectrum. This comes after the telecom secretary asked the TC to clear the refund of BSNL's licence fees and spectrum usage charges relating to its surrendered 4G spectrum at the earliest as only Rs 1 billion has been refunded so far in 2014-15. The TC has also been working on waiving the microwave charges incurred annually by BSNL. At present, the operator pays about Rs 1 billion as royalty annually to DoT's wireless planning cell to provide microwave connectivity in the Northeast region.