MTNL defaults on loan repayments worth 87 billion rupees

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) has defaulted on loan repayments worth 86.59 billion rupees ($990.48 million) to a group of seven public sector banks, the state-run telecom company said on Monday.

In July, MTNL had disclosed defaults of 85.85 billion rupees to the same lenders.

The default includes 77.94 billion rupees in principal and 8.65 billion rupees in overdue interest to lenders including Union Bank of India, Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India.

The debt-laden operator, which has long struggled with falling subscriber numbers, mounting losses and shrinking relevance in India's highly competitive telecom market, has been surviving largely on government support and debt roll-overs.

MTNL's total debt has risen to 345.77 billion rupees ($3.96 billion) as of July 31, from 344.84 billion rupees in June-end, which also includes sovereign-guaranteed bonds and loans from the Department Of Telecommunications.