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| Communication Minister RS Prasad |
GOOD news for the employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
(BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL). The government has shown
seriousness about reviving the two telecom companies in days to come. Minister
for Communication and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, on July 11 said
it is quite serious...
to restore the health of the BSNL and MTNL by adopting
various measures.
The minister told the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour that
government is planning fresh investment of 39,458 crore rupees over five years
for the purpose. He said, the two government-owned telcos are faced with
declining revenues from loss of market share, increasing expenditure and
inability of invest in expansion of communications network.
BSNL's market share of mobile subscriber base has dipped to
10.95 percent, as on May 2014, from 14.87 percent in March, 2009. During the
same period, MTNL's market share has come down to 4.83 per cent from 10.87 percent.
The measures are likely to bring some cheers to the
once-profitable jewels of the government.
BSNL has been incurring losses since 2009-10. Its profits
started dipping after 2004-05, when it had made net gains of Rs 10,183 crore.
Its losses stood at Rs 8,198 crore for 2012-13 against Rs 8,851 crore in
2011-12. Likewise, in 2012-13, MTNL recorded a net loss of Rs 5,321.12 crore on
annual revenue of Rs 3,428.6 crore. The last time MTNL made a profit was in
2008-09, when it posted a net of Rs 205.9 crore on revenue of Rs 4,496.2 crore.
Earlier, during the UPA regime, the department of telecom
(DoT) had put a number of issues for GoM for improving condition of MTNL and
BSNL. These include a synergy between the two companies, waiver of one-time
spectrum charges which amounting to about Rs 10,000 crore, waive off around Rs
980 crore principal amount of notional loan amount outstanding against BSNL
among others.
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