BSNL is not going down, salaries will be paid this week: Chairman Purwar

Embattled state-run telecom operator BSNL may be going through "financial challenges", but it is not going down, signalled chairman and managing director P.K. Purwar at a function in Delhi today.

Salaries will be paid before Diwali to employees, while the government will come up with a plan in a month’s time, he said. 

There is no question of not surviving, he declared emphatically, explaining that "legacy issues" and a lack of 4G spectrum were the two issues vexing the telecom behemoth. These are issues that will be addressed by the government in a package in two weeks.

He added that BSNL had the lowest financial liabilities amongst all the telecom operators in the country and was making 20,000 crore rupees revenue every month, beside being in possession of a lot of assets. “So, there should be no second thoughts in anybody’s mind,” Purwar said.

The debt-ridden PSU has not been able to pay salaries of employees for September.

There were reports that the finance ministry wanted public sector telecom firm BSNL and MTNL to be shut down.

A group of ministers headed by Home Minister Amit Shah has approved a revival plan proposed by the DoT.

The group of ministers had earlier approved a revival package for the loss-making public sector telecom firms in mid-July. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad were part of the GoM that approved the plan. However, finance ministry officials later raised over 80 objections to the proposal prepared by the telecom ministry.

Prasad said that the government is also working to resolve problem in the telecom sector, but it also expects service provider to be responsible by upgrading their network and ensuring that customers are satisfied with the services.

-Inputs from PTI