India's BSNL says 2008/09 net profit at $119 mln

NEW DELHI, July 30 (Reuters) - Indian state-run telecoms firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Thursday said its net profit for the year ended March 2009 stood at 5.75 billion rupees ($119 million).

The unlisted company did not give comparable figures for the previous year, but said profit for 2008/09 financial year was lower due to an increase in employee cost and drop in revenue of its fixed line services.

BSNL had a total revenue of 358.12 billion rupees for the financial year, it said in a statement after a board meeting.

On July 16, the junior telecoms minister told the Parliament BSNL's profit for the year to March 2009 had dipped to 1.04 billion rupees on revenue of 349.37 billion rupees. ($1=48.3 rupees) (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)