Chennai: Around 1.76 lakh employees of State-owned telecom firm BSNL are yet to receive their pay cheques for the month of February as the communications firm continues to struggle with financial constraints.
Although the firm has been struggling for the past five years, this is the first instance of the company defaulting on salary payments. It also, according to industry experts, underlines the tough times ahead for the firm.
The employees’ union has written to Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha urging that the government release funds to the company to pay the salaries as well as revive the ailing firm. Employees have also been holding demonstrations, state reports.
Around 55 per cent of BSNL’s revenues goes towards payment of wages, and while the company’s wage bill increases annually by 8 per cent, its revenues are stagnant.
According to reports, contractual employees are in a worse situation in some circles, as they haven’t received their salaries for the last three months, and while others haven’t received a penny since the last six months.
Reports said even March salaries will be delayed by a few days despite the fact that cash flows in the month are usually higher because of billing from the enterprise business.
The associations and unions of BSNL have also said that the financial health of Telecom Industry has suffered because of the predatory pricing of Reliance Jio.
“Financial crisis is being faced by other operators also but they are managing the situation by infusing huge amounts,” a letter by All Unions and Associations of BSNL (AUAB) to Sinha said.
To take care of the problem, BSNL has been looking to take loans to meet expenditure. However, according to reports, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has not approved it yet. BSNL is allowed to take loan only for capital expenditure in accordance with the rules laid by the DoT.
| Reports made by a financial daily quoted BSNL officials as saying the company has started paying February salaries now to staff in Kerala, J&K, Odisha and the corporate office.
“As and when the income is generated, salaries will be paid to the staff. As the government has not given any financial support, the salaries are being delayed,” reports quoted BSNL officials as saying. |
| The losses of BSNL has been increasing with each passing year. It reported a loss of around Rs 8,000 crore for FY18, compared to Rs 4,786 crore in FY17. For FY19 also, the loss is expected to be higher than Rs 8,000 crore. In all, BSNL currently has has debt of Rs 13,900 crore, significantly less than that of Airtel that has debt of Rs 1.13 lakh crore while Vodafone has Rs 1.2 lakh crore. |