the decision by Minister of Telecommunications Renee Webb effectively lowering the revenue it earns from long distance calls.

The company has also applied for a stay against the slash in revenue it receives from the international telecommunications companies for passing on local long distance telephone calls.

BTC has said it was losing $1 million a month since January 1, when Ms Webb ordered the revenue cut on advice from the Telecommunications Commission. The company has applied to raise local rates to recoup the revenue.

Last week The Royal Gazette reported that as many as 100 staff -- a quarter of the company's 400 strong workforce -- could face the axe if the Commission fails to give the price increase the go-ahead.

Government has attacked BTC management, claiming the company had deliberately stalled the process of rebalancing the rate structure so revenue were in line with costs. In the past BTC used long distance revenue from the international companies to subsidise local rates.

A BTC spokeswoman said the issue was not one of timing but one of Government cutting rates in one area without allowing the company to raise them in the local market.

"The timing issue is a red herring,'' she said yesterday. "What does that have to do with taking something away and not addressing the imbalance? It's unfair.'' She said BTC has applied for a two-step process of rebalancing rates between long distance revenue and local charges in 1996. The Telecommunications Commission accepted the proposal to reduce charges to long distance companies by five cents per minute and raise the local service charge by $2 a month. The second part of the proposal was rejected.

The BTC spokeswoman said the company had been working on submitting a costing analysis as requested to the Commission, which was promised for April this year.

"We take exception to the claim we are stalling,'' the spokeswoman said.

"All the carriers have been busy dealing with the issue of competition.'' Letters between the Telecommunications Department and BTC indicate a growing level of frustration between the two sides.

In a May 20, 1998 letter then Telecommunications Commission chairman Robert Stewart took the company to task for not submitting enough financial information for members to make decisions.

They accused BTC of "evasive responses in some cases and arguments as to why a response should not be given at all,'' he said. "In one case the Commission are told by BTC that an important study has been lost due to an error made by a computer technician when repairing a computer.'' He called on BTC to supply the costing information that had been requested in letters dated January 26 and February 13 last year.

Telecommunications Department director Ted Pitman said BTC did not have any excuse for holding up the process of rate rebalancing.

"In 1996 they were the ones suggesting the rebalancing,'' he said. "They started down the road then they just stopped. They are putting in place a new costing system but that should not have delayed them.''