Telkom reports lower earnings in first half
Telkom reports lower earnings in first half
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed telecommunications company PT
Telkom reported on Tuesday an unaudited net income of Rp 1.24
trillion (US$152.43 million) during the first semester of this
year, down 15.2 percent from Rp 1.47 trillion for the same period
last year.
The company said the decrease was partly due to an increase in
foreign exchange losses to Rp 1.03 billion over the six month
period.
Telkom said its total operating revenues grew 20.88 percent to
reach Rp 4.51 trillion in the first half of this year from Rp
3.73 trillion in the comparable period of 1999.
The growth was partly due to the higher revenues Telkom had
received from its five Joint Cooperation Scheme (KSO) partners in
the first half of this year which amounted to Rp 1.12 trillion
compared to 831.47 billion in the comparable period of last year.
Telkom's total operating expenses were up by 8.18 percent to
Rp 2.31 trillion from Rp 2.13 trillion in the first six months of
last year.
But the operating income still recorded an increase of 37.93
percent to Rp 2.19 trillion in the first semester of this year
from Rp 1.59 trillion for the same period last year, due to a
significant growth in total revenue.
Telkom said that as of June 30, its total debt reached Rp 9.92
trillion, some 45.8 percent of which was denominated in rupiah
and the rest in various foreign currencies.
During the first six months of this year, the company spent
approximately Rp 509.23 billion to finance the expansion of its
telephone network and some Rp 219.21 billion for technology
development and new businesses.
Telkom installed during the first semester a total of 17,942
new telephone lines.
As of June 30, Telkom and its five KSO partners operated a
total of 6.32 million telephone lines, whereas 3.38 million lines
of them were located in Telkom's operational zones in Jakarta and
East Java and the rest distributed in the partners' areas across
the country.
Telkom said some 97,351 subscribers had canceled their
subscription during the period, a figure which was better than
last year's record of 127,644 cancellations.
Most the new lines, 76.9 percent, were used by residential
subscribers and some 22.5 percent by business subscribers.
Telkom said it would likely be forced to increase the
telephone rates this year by 21.67 percent to comply with the
government's policy.
The government has scheduled a gradual increase in the local
fixed-line telephone tariff by 21.67 percent this year, 16.60
percent next year and another 8.22 percent in 2001.
Telkom also said that in line with the government's grand
policy on the country's telecommunications sector, it would give
up its monopoly of local and domestic long distance call services
in 2002 and 2003, ahead of the original schedules of 2010 and
2005 respectively.
In return, the company said it would be allowed to operate the
basic fixed-line telephone service for local, domestic long
distance and international calls as well as Internet and
multimedia businesses.
Telkom said the government had awarded it with a license in
principle for the international call service in August and was
expected to award the operating license to the business in August
2003. (cst)