August 11I 2019 I BUSINESS TODAYI 55THE VALUE OF THE
PROPOSED BAILOUT
PACKAGE FOR BSNL & MTNL74,000 cr
is going through the worst period in its 19-year-old
history. In February, it got a lot of f lak after failing
to pay monthly salaries. Though it has been paying
salaries on time since then, the time bomb is ticking
fast. Its monthly wage bill is over 1,230 crore, and salaries are rising at about 8 per cent annually. With revenues falling year after year, it will soon run out of money to pay its employees. BSNL’s revenues are expected to fall 23 per cent in 2018/19 to19,308
crore while losses are expected to swell 78 per cent
to `14,202 crore. It will have to get used to taxpayer-
funded bailouts, it seems.
The biggest problem with BSNL is its bloated