State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)is in serious trouble. It has recorded the first ever loss since it was formed in October 2000. Since Kuldeep Goyal retired on 31 July, BSNL does not have a CMD now.But,that is nothing new for BSNL which has not been able to find a replacement to SD Saxena who retired as director finance in December 2008. That's a net 19 months without a CFO.
The government has just started the process to identify a CMD. Hopefully that process should not take as long. However, BSNL has company in MTNL, which too has an acting CMD.
As Goyal demitted office, he announced that BSNL has run up a loss of Rs 1,823 crore during 2009-'10 against a profit of Rs 575 crore in 2008-'09.During this fiscal, BSNL reported a 10.4 per cent decline in revenues at Rs 32,045.41 crore for 2009-10 as against Rs 35,812 crore in 2008-09.
The loss has been attributed to the fall in revenues from landline services and a higher wage bill due to the implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission for government employees. More importantly, it has not been able to compete in the ever-changing Indian telecom market.
As if that was not enough, it sought a refund of the payment made for 3G and BWA spectrum. That request was rejected by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
So will the government finally look to selling off a 26% stake in BSNL?
That could well be the best thing that could happen to BSNL. For that to happen, the government needs to convince the multitude of unions on the positives of selling the stake.
1 comment:
Genial post and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.
Post a Comment