Editorial – December 2019

The two telecom PSUs have been given a big bailout of Rs 69,000 crore because the Prime Minister believes that the government telcos must run successful operations and services. The revival package details are as follows: Rs 20,410 crore will be spent on purchase of 4G spectrum and Rs 3,674 crore is allocated towards payment of GST on spectrum allocation. There is a sovereign guarantee for Rs 15,000 crore debt to be raised by BSNL-MTNL. VRS has been funded by government at Rs 17,160 crore and another Rs 12,768 crore is the expenditure towards retirement liability. For BSNL, 78,569 people have taken VRS giving it an annual saving of Rs 7,000 crore. For MTNL, 14,387 people have taken VRS giving it an annual saving of Rs 1,200 crore.

Besides these government infusions, assets worth Rs 37,500 crore constituting mostly land and building are expected to be monetized in the next three years and an EGoM has been set up for this purpose. The amounts will be used for expansion and retiring outstanding bank loans, which is Rs 20,500 crore in case of MTNL and Rs 20,000 crore in case of BSNL. Both the companies incur heavy expense on interest account for servicing these loans.

Helming all these developments is BSNL CMD, PK Purwar who will also be practically the top boss for affairs of MTNL, since the latter is to be merged with BSNL. Mr Purwar’s stewardship will be keenly watched as the two telecom PSUs will reinvent itself under his leadership. In a freewheeling interview with TelecomLive, Mr Purwar opened up and delineated his priorities, plans, challenges and targeted milestones. Mr Purwar says that post VRS, he has a staff strength of 71,000 which is sufficient and his main preoccupation now is to raise them to meet the tasks of transformation since January 31, 2020 is the cut-off date for VRS. So, while those opting have to be ensured a smooth exit, those remaining have to be meaningfully redeployed to ensure there is no service disruption. It is one of the biggest manpower retooling and reform which we are seeing unfold in the recent times.

This edition’s three-part cover story focuses on the preparation post bailout. It deals with the fund requirement aspect of BSNL-MTNL, its existing network and future 4G deployments, how will equipment be purchased, what it can earn and save per site, the relationship with its vendors, staff utilisation and what services it can offer to the consumers.