Central funds help BSNL slash debt to Rs 23,297 crore from Rs 40,400 crore: Ministry

CHENNAI: The special fund packages and the corpus infused by the Centre have helped the cash-starved BSNL to cut its debt to Rs 23,297 crore in March 2024 from Rs 40,400 crore in March 2022.

In his reply to a question raised in Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Communications Dr Premmasani Chandra Sekhar noted that leading telecom firm Bharti Airtel had a debt of Rs 1,07,624 crore on March 31, 2022, which went up to Rs 1,25,983 crore in 2024. During the same period, Jio Infocomm witnessed its debt going up to Rs 52,740 crore from Rs 42,486 crore.

The worst was Voda Idea Limited, which is saddled with a whopping debt of Rs 2,07,885 crore (March 2023), the minister added.

As part of the revival steps taken by BSNL in 2019, the first revival package amounting to around Rs 69,000 crores brought down the operating costs of BSNL/MTNL. In 2022, revival package amounting to Rs 1.64 lakh crore was granted, which helped infuse fresh capital, restructure debt, and provide viability gap funding for rural telephony.

In 2023, the Union government approved the allotment of 4G/5G spectrum to BSNL with a total outlay of around Rs 89,000 crore.

As a result of these packages, BSNL has started earning operating profits from 2020-21 financial year, the note added.