Even after the rejection of its financial package of Rs 23,000 crore (Rs 230 billion) that included the full reimbursement of licence fee and spectrum charges till 2006-07 by the Cabinet, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Tuesday said it was hopeful that the proposal would eventually be accepted.

"The Cabinet note is still going on. So we are pushing the reimbursement of the licence fee and spectrum charges. We are hopeful of getting it and we are definitely pursuing that," Prithipal Singh, chairman, BSNL, told newspersons in New Delhi.

He said BSNL has replied to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's letter seeking clarifications on its latest wireless in local loop package, offering limited mobility at Rs 20.

On whether BSNL would come out with new tariffs, he said "We are not getting into new tariffs, we will work out only packages".

On whether there was an initial public offer in the offing, he said, "It is only a thought process. There has been no decision on the IPO. No concrete move has been made."

BSNL has a fixedline subscriber base of 4 crore. In WLL, BSNL has more than half a million subscribers, while in cellular it has got 3.2 million subscribers.

"We are going ahead now, deploying WLL in different cities and also in the rural areas. We will target 5 million for mobile and 1.5 million in WLL at the end of the year," Singh added.

The Cabinet has already rejected BSNL's demand for the reimbursement with a view to provide a level playing field for other operators.