State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Tuesday announced a partial roll-back in telephone tariffs by increasing the number of free calls per month.

While BSNL increased free calls from 50 to 75 per month for rural subscribers and 30 to 50 for urban subscribers, MTNL announced that it would give 60 free calls every month as opposed to 30 announced earlier.

BSNL also halved landline call charges to cellphones to Rs 1.20 per minute instead of Rs 1.20 for 30 seconds announced earlier.

However, there would be no change in MTNL's tariff for calls from landlines to cellphones.

Telecom Minister Arun Shourie told reporters that the twin roll-backs will cost BSNL Rs 3,476 crore (Rs 34.76 billion) during this financial year.

The corporation would lose Rs 2,600 crore (Rs 26 billion) on account of change in pulse rate for calls from landlines to cellphones, while the loss on account of increasing free calls would be Rs 876 crore (Rs 8.76 billion).

For MTNL, increasing free calls would lead to a revenue loss of Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.40 billion) annually, he added.