BSNL's total net loss of Rs. 57,671 crore since inspection: Report

GUWAHATI: In a press release it is announced that since the inception of BSNL, the total net loss is Rs 57,671 crore while that of MTNL is Rs 14,989 crore as on March 31, 2022. The report was told to the Parliament on Friday.

As per the Ministry of Communication, the reasons for the losses of the BSNL and the MTNL are high employee costs over the years, debt burden, stiff competition in the market, and lack of 4G services.

Previously on October 23, 2019, the government approved the revival plan for BSNL and MTNL. It inter-alia approved the deduction in employee costs through Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), debt restructuring by raising sovereign guarantee bonds, administrative allotment of spectrum for 4G services through capital infusion, monetization of core and non-core assets, and in-principle approval of the merger of BSNL and MTNL, the Rajya Sabha was told in a written reply.

Following this BSNL and MTNL have become EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and amortization) positive since the financial year 2020-21.

To transform BSNL into a feasible public sector undertaking, the government approved a revival package for BSNL amounting to Rs 1.64 lakh crore on July 27, 2022. The revival measures also focus on investing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating spectrum, de-stressing its balance sheet, and augmenting its fiber network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd (BBNL) with BSNL.

Now BSNL is expected to turn around and become a profit-earning entity, said the Ministry. The Ministry also informed that BSNL and MTNL have been playing a crucial role along with private telecom players in the development of the telecom infrastructure and expansion of telecom services.

BSNL and MTNL are important for implementing citizen-centric schemes of the Government of India, especially in the rural and remote un-covered areas.
BSNL has provided 24,58,827 FTTH connections as on September 30, 2022.

ALSO READ: FINER to organise policy dialogue on new industrial policy for NE