At present, BSNL has a debt of Rs 30,000 crore which is the lowest in the telecom sector.
State-owned telecom firm BSNL has approached the government for financial help of Rs 40,000 crore, half of which is needed in the form of sovereign guarantee to repay the short-term loan.
PK Purwar, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL said PTI That the company does not require any additional loans and its business has become self-sufficient to support the operations.
“We do not need any additional loan. We have sought a sovereign guarantee of ₹20,000 crore to pay off our short-term debt and issue long-term bonds. If we have to set up 1 lakh node B (mobile sites) for mobile network rollout, we will need ₹20,000 crore,” Mr. Purwar said.
BSNL CMD confirmed that they have approached the government for support, which is beyond the ₹69,000 crore relief package announced in 2019.
At present, BSNL has a debt of Rs 30,000 crore which is the lowest in the telecom sector.
Mr. Purwar is also the head of MTNL, which is proposed to be merged with BSNL. The government has already issued permits to BSNL to operate mobile business in Delhi and Mumbai which was earlier managed by MTNL.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday extended the additional charge of Mr. Purwar as Chairman and Managing Director of loss-making telecom company MTNL for a period of one year till October 2022.
The government had offered a combined revival package of around ₹69,000 crore to BSNL and MTNL in October 2019, which has helped both the telecom PSUs reduce their losses.
According to official data, BSNL’s loss has come down to Rs 7,441 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 15,500 crore in 2019-20. MTNL incurred a total loss of ₹ 2,554 crore in the last financial year, as against ₹ 3,811 crore in 2019-20.
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