The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) will be giving ₹13,000 crore to debt-laden and loss making telecom- BSNL (Bharat Sachar Nigam Limited). The new bailout package which is under deliberation will be given by government to help BSNL so that it can pay pending salaries for February to about 1.76 lakh employees.
Along with a bailout out proposal, the proposal for allocation of 4G spectrum is also under consideration. The allocation of 4G spectrum has been a long time demand of many BSNL executives and employees and is very crucial too for the state run BSNL cause then only it will be able to compete with its more advanced rivals like Jio, Airtel and Vodafone-Idea.
The allocation of 4G spectrum allotment will be through equity infusion of ₹6,767 crore.
The DoT package apart from 4G spectrum allocation will also be offering ₹6,365 crore for Voluntary Retirement Scheme. Apart from this, the company will be selling its real state assets spread across the country.
The package comes at a time when none of the lenders are willing to give BSNL even short term financial help owing to its poor condition. BSNL posted a loss of ₹8,000 crore in FY18 and the losses for the current fiscal is likely to remain above ₹7,000 crore. Also, the chances of state run telecom to come out of this financial crises is very rare amid a very strong competition by private telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea limited.
Though DoT has given yes nod to the BSNL’s request for 4G spectrum allocation in the 2100 Mhz band to launch 4G services across the country but the proposal is yet to receive approval of cabinet. The new proposal comes after the strike by the BSNL worker in the previous month.