By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Nov.16: Net profit of state-owned telecom company - Nepal Telecom (NT) - has increased significantly during the first quarter of the current fiscal year.

The net profit of NT has increased by 48.90 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal year compared to the same period last fiscal year.

The company has earned a net profit of Rs. 2.25 billion in the review period of the current fiscal year 2021/22 while it had earned a net profit of Rs. 1.51 billion in the first quarter of the last fiscal year 2020/21.

With the implementation of the 4G project and expanding its reach to large customers, the active use of mobile data, voice and SMS has led to significant growth of net profit, NT said.

The company has said that the revenue and profit have increased due to the significant increase in the use of services offered by it.

Meanwhile, the operating income of the company has increased by 13.2 per cent during the review period. The operating income of the NT stood at Rs. 9.77 billion during the first quarter of the current fiscal year while it was 8.63 billion during the same period a year ago.

The NT was able to collect a revenue of Rs 10.95 billion by providing service during the review period which is 8.39 per cent higher than it was in the same period last year.

With the waning impact of COVID-19, improvement in the global business and increased data consumption and other services have contributed to improving the financial health of the company, it said.

Due to the direct impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nepal Telecom had witnessed a decline in global business, interest rates on term deposits and call deposits of banks and financial institutions have decreased in the last fiscal year.