BSNL fails to pay February salaries of 1.76 lakh employees due to cash crunch; seeks govt's help for revival

New Delhi: Monetary crisis in public sector telecom entity Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) seems to have to become severe as a recent report states that the company failed to pay February salaries of as many as 1.76 lakh employees due to cash crunch. The management has reportedly said that they do not have enough cash flow for the payment of employees for the month of February. Employees said that this is for the first time in the history that BSNL has not been able to disperse the salaries. Several initial reports also claim that full-time BSNL employees have not received their salaries for the month of February, which they were supposed to get on February 28th. While on the other hand, contractual workers in some circles have not received salaries for the last three months and in some areas of Uttar Pradesh for the last six months. The employees’ union of the telecom firm has written to telecom minister Manoj Sinha urging the government to release funds in order to pay the salaries as well as inject cash in the loss-making company. The employees have also been holding demonstrations. However, the company officials have claimed that salaries disbursement process has been initiated in some regions. Certain association of BSLN believe that besides dipping customer retention, the company has also suffered further financial crackdown after the introduction of unlimited calls and data options offered by telecom companies like Reliance Jio, Airtel and Idea-Vodafone etc. Digital Communications Commission (DCC) last month asked loss-making telecom PSUs BSNL to explain their turnaround strategy and give an assurance to achieve higher revenue for getting financial support. The telecom company has already sought financial support and approvals for asset sales as part of its revival plans. The state-run telecom firm has asked for permission to monetise its land assets as well as the voluntary retirement scheme for employees on the Gujarat model. The VRS scheme for BSNL and MTNL will have a revenue impact of Rs 6,365 crore and Rs 2,120 crore, respectively. The company has been in red for quite some time now. It reported a loss of around Rs 8,000 crore for FY18, compared to Rs 4,786 crore in FY17. Even in FY19, the loss is expected to be higher than Rs 8,000 crore.