Indian MPs owe millions to phone company
Congress party legislators shout anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) right-wing party slogans inside State Legislative Assembly during a nine-day session in Srinagar on September 28, 2011.
It's no wonder that India's state-owned companies have trouble making a profit.
Just look at MTNL, the government-run telecom firm.
It turns out that current and former members of parliament owe the firm close to $2 million — and that's over and above an ordinary allotment of free calls for government "servants," reports the Economic Times.
The muck had to be raked out by a Right to Information (RTI) query, which received a reply on Tuesday.
According to ET, the reply lists 399 MPs who owe a total of about $1.4 million to MTNL, as well as six current members who owe about $400,000.