BSNL Stares At Bleak Future: Amidst Financial Troubles, Fails To Pay February Salaries To 1.76 Lakh Employees

According to a recent report, state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) missed paying February salaries to its employees, reports The Hindu BusinessLine (BL).

“In what we believe is an important development, once-a-Navratna-PSU, BSNL missed paying its employees their February salaries on time. We understand from various publicly available sources and unauthenticated media reports that these payouts have not been made yet,” claimed the report on telecommunication services by Kotak Institutional Equities.

Commenting on the precarious financial position of the telecom PSU, the report added, “To be sure, BSNL’s financial position has been deteriorating for a long time — the company has, in the past 14 years, moved from Navratna status to being declared as an ‘incipient sick’ PSU.”

While BSNL’s losses stood at Rs 4,859 crore and Rs 4,786 crore FY 2015-16 and FY 2016-17 respectively, they expanded to Rs 7,992 in FY 2017-18. At the end of FY18, the cumulative losses of the company stood at a massive Rs 31,287 crore.

Unproductive Workforce

For the company which is bloated with an excessive workforce, employee expenses, including retiral benefit accruals, stood at a whopping 66 per cent of operating revenues in FY18. This was substantially higher than 21 per cent figure in FY06 and 27 per cent in FY08.

“We believe the current annual cash loss run-rate for BSNL would be in excess of $1 billion,” warned the report.

Also Read: Throwing Good Money After Bad? NITI Aayog Warns Against Rs 14,000 Crore Capital Infusion In BSNL, MTNL For 4G