The state-run company is expecting a minimum income of Rs 70 crore from its strategic alliance with indiainfo.com during the fiscal 00-01. The income from indiainfo could go up, if the dotcom announces any dividend as well, VSNL director (finance) RSP Sinha said. According to the agreement with indiainfo.com, VSNL will get a minimum of Rs 200 crore over the next three years or 20 per cent of the revenue for its 30 per cent equity stake in indiainfo.com. VSNL's stake in indiainfo has been valued at Rs 200 crore according to merchant bank sources.

The company's total revenue and net profit during 1999-00 was Rs 7,272 crore and Rs 799 crore respectively. The 40 per cent slip in net profit during the period was due to the writing off VSNL's earlier investments in ICO Global. Had the company not made a provision for Rs 513 crore, its net profit would have been Rs 1,312 crore. According to Sinha, the bottomline could be quite impressive going by the fact that the company will also have some tax savings due to the writing down of Rs 513 crore towards ICO Global Communications imbroglio. "The tax benefit, which will reflect in the bottomline, will be Rs 200 crore (38 to 40 per cent tax on the provision of Rs 513 crore)," he added.

This apart, the growth in international traffic volume is phenomenal. Over the past few months, the average increase in outgoing calls is 17 per cent, while the increase in incoming call is about 22 per cent. This would end up in additional revenues for the company, Sinha said. During the last fiscal, VSNL carried traffic of 2,239.32 million minutes of telephone traffic as against 1,935.04 million minutes in the previous year, representing a growth of 15.72 per cent. The traffic during the last quarter ended March 31, 2000 was 614.96 million minutes (519.56 million minutes), a growth of 18.36 per cent. Extra income from Inmarsat is also expected following the corporatisation of the company. VSNL had received a revenue of Rs 25 crore from investment in Inmarsat in 1998-99. "Inmarsat is yet to declare its dividend this year," he added.

According to Sinha, the company has already made provisions for the proposed hike in salaries of VSNL employees as per the Mohan Committee report. This apart, the company is not going for any substantial increase in its employee strength. Recently, VSNL added about 40 employees as part of the expansion plans. Meanwhile, VSNL is likely to file the documents for the proposed ADR listing at the New York Stock Exchange shortly. For the purpose, it will convert the GDRs into ADRs.