By Press Trust of India | Updated: 3 February 2023
State-owned telco BSNL is expected to turn around, generating net profit in the fiscal year 2026-27, with the implementation of the approved revival measures, Parliament was informed on Friday.
Losses of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) were pegged at Rs. 3,589 crore in April-September 2022-23 as it clocked an income of Rs 9,366 crore and incurred a total expenditure of Rs. 12,956 crore, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
In 2021-22, losses stood at Rs. 6,982 crore, against income of Rs 19,052 crore and expenses of Rs. 26,034 crore.
“BSNL is expected to generate a net profit in the financial year 2026-27 with the implementation of the revival package,” Chauhan said in reply to another question.
The Cabinet had approved a revival package for both BSNL and MTNL in 2019.
Further, the Union Cabinet on July 2022 cleared an Rs. 1.64 lakh crore revival package for BSNL. The revival measures focus on infusing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating spectrum, de-stressing its balance sheet, augmenting its fibre network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with BSNL.
As part of the Cabinet approval, a capex of Rs. 22,471 crore has been approved for BSNL as equity infusion over a period of four years from 2022-23 to 2025-26 through budgetary allocation.
This will be utilised by BSNL for its capex requirement including 4G mobile services.
“The revival packages approved by the Cabinet will strengthen BSNL in telecom services including in rural areas and will facilitate the mission of providing digital connectivity in rural areas and help domestic manufacturing industry. Further, BSNL has planned procurement for 1 lakh sites to provide 4G services under `Atmanirbhar Bharat’ mission,” Chauhan said.
With the implementation of the approved revival measures by the government, BSNL is expected to turn around with net profit in 2026-27, Chauhan informed the House.
