ONCE the crowning jewels of the
government, BSNL is today struggling to stay afloat amidst tough
competition from private players and mounting losses. The NDA
government is according top priority to revive the ailing PSU. But
will the telecom major tread the path of profit?
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi met Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to...
review the plans for
revival of the state-run BSNL.
At the meeting, a presentation was made
to Modi on the initiatives planned for the loss-making PSU. Senior
officials of the Department of Telecom and BSNL were present.
The government is keen on reviving BSNL
and MTNL that are facing stiff competition from private players.
“The Prime Minister is very keen on
the revival of the PSU. He wanted a complete presentation on the
entire working of BSNL, and the legacy issues faced by the company
were outlined to him,” a national daily quoted an official source
as saying.
Earlier, Ravi Shankar Prasad said BSNL,
which runs a large network nationwide, earned a profit of Rs. 10,000
crore when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government left office in 2004.
However, in 2014, it suffered a loss of Rs 7,500 crore.
The government’s efforts were bearing
fruit as BSNL’s revenue went up 2.1 per cent during 2014-15 and the
number of active subscribers rose by 47 lakhs.
At March-end, BSNL had 7.72 crore
mobile phone subscribers.
Meanwhile, the Centre will take its
call on the proposed merger of state-run BSNL and MTNL in the next
four-five months, telecom secretary Rakesh Garg said. But there are
hurdles before the final merger takes shape.
In a bid to mop up additional
resources, the BSNL expects to generate Rs 500 crore revenue form
utilising land bank, training centre and seven telecom factories as
well as monetisation of its 75,000 towers. 
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