India & World UpdatesBreaking News
BSNL: No fund to pay salary of June to its employees
June 24: There is hardly any household who does not own either a BSNL prepaid/postpaid SIM or landline or broadband connection. Inspite of such a huge base of customers, state-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has sought immediate fund infusion from the government as the telecom firm is struggling to run its operations, including paying Rs 850 crore worth of salaries before June. At present, BSNL does have sufficient funds to pay salary of June to its 1.76 lakh employees.
BSNL’s accumulated operating loss crossed Rs 90,000 crore at the end of December, 2018, according to a report by Kotak Institutional Equities. The public sector company has nearly Rs 13,000 crore as outstanding liabilities that have made running the business difficult.
Puran Chandra, senior general manager at BSNL’s corporate budget and banking division, stated in a letter to the joint secretary in the telecom ministry, “The gap between monthly revenues and bare expenses to continue operations as a going concern has reached to a level where continuing with the BSNL operations would be nearly impossible without immediate infusion of adequate equity.”
The government has failed to provide any revival road map and even dismissed suggestions of closing it down. BSNL’s chairman had also given a presentation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi a few months back but no final decision was taken on how the company would survive.
