Some cheer for the employees and creditors of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as the struggling telecom company managed to release the November salaries to its employees and has cleared the dues to the creditors partially.

BSNL seems to be on road to recovery after the government unveiled a revival package of around Rs 70,000 crore to revive the ailing telco.

Accordingly, the Union Cabinet has approved a Rs 69,000 crore package to turn the companies around. The package involves merging the operations of the two companies BSNL and MTNL into one single entity. The other major decision is to offer a voluntary retirement scheme, VRS to the employees. Over 92,000 employees opted for VRS across BSNL and MTNL.

This alone will save the companies Rs 8,800 every year on account of salaries and other manpower costs, once these employees are eased off the rolls.  

On the creditors’ side, the total outstanding is said to be Rs 10,000 crore. The CMD’s latest statement that Rs 1,700 crore has been released means around 17% of that amount has been taken care of.

As November salaries were paid, the monthly wage cost stood at Rs 800 crore.

With these steps and the government releasing further funds to BSNL to setup the 4G infrastructure and pay for the spectrum and roll out the services, the government is hoping that the company can start showing some profits in a couple of years.

There is also a proposal to monetise the assets in possession of the companies and raise around Rs 37,500 crore.