Eight telecom service providers, including Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, together have to shell out Rs 49,000, as penalty for not checking unsolicited calls to subscribers from telemarketing companies.

Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed financial disincentive on the non-compliance of the regulation on unsolicited telemarketing calls and eight operators, including Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, BSNL and MTNL will have to pay Rs 49,000 in total, Telecom Minister A Raja said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In response to a separate query, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said the net profit before tax (PBT) of state-run telecom firm BSNL has reduced to Rs 1,272 crore in 2008-09 from Rs 4,452 crore in the previous fiscal.

For MTNL, the PBT dropped to Rs 211.72 crore in 2008-09 from Rs 586.89 crore in 2007-08.

To another query, Pilot said the government is working on a proposed scheme of the centre for Telecom Testing and Security Certification, so that telcos can procure equipment from vendors from any country while mitigating security threats.