In Hefty outgo for employee salaries and expenses borne for procurement of 3G and BWA spectrum have led to BSNLs losses mounting about Rs. 6000 crore in during 2010-11. In 2009-10, the PSU had registered a net loss of Rs 1,823 crore.
The unaudited results presented by the company indicate that the loss for 2010-11 is Rs 5,997 crore. A senior BSNL official said, The reason for widening of the losses is mainly on account of payment made to the Government to procure 3G and BWA licenses. The company had paid a total of Rs 18,500 crore for both.
This payment has resulted in loss of other income of close to Rs 4,000 crore during the year gone by. Finance Ministry has denied BSNLs demands for refund of this money. The total revenues of the company also declined to Rs 28,876 crore during the year, down nearly 10 per cent from Rs 32,072 crore in the previous financial year.
In 2005-06, BSNL had reported the highest net profit of over Rs 10,000 crore. Since then its profits have been falling and in 2009-10 it reported net losses. The PSU has been offering voluntary retirement scheme to reduce its workforce. Right now more than 47 per cent of the total income of the company goes for the payment made to its employees.
The company has set an internal target of 99,700 employees - comprising Group A (1,483), Group B (6,262), Group C (76,655) and Group D (15,214) staffers. Since 2009, VRS has been under discussion. A panel headed by Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, advocated that BSNL take the VRS route to prune its nearly 2.77 lakh strong workforce by a third.
In the proposed VRS, BSNLs liability is pegged at a modest Rs 2,700 crore, while the telecom department will shoulder nearly Rs 18,000 crore. The Department of Telecom is already examining the feasibility of merging government telecom companies ITI and MTNL with state-run BSNL, in line with the recommendations of the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE).
As of July 31, BSNL had 95.14 million mobile subscribers. In the present state of affairs, it is impossible for the company to catch up with private players in telecom sector.
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