No plans to close BSNL, MTNL: Govt

The government has no plan to close down lossmaking public sector telecom firms BSNL and MTNL, Minister of State for Telecom Sanjay Dhotre told Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The minister shared that BSNL's loss has swelled to Rs 15,500 crore from Rs 14,904 crore, and that of MTNL increased to Rs 3,811 crore from Rs 3,398 crore between 2019-20 and 2018-19.

"The government has no plan to close down BSNL and MTNL," Dhotre said in a written reply.

The government had announced a revival package of around Rs 69,000 crore in October 2019.

The revival plan includes reduction in employee costs through a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for the employees of age 50 years and above, administrative allotment of spectrum for 4G services with funding through budgetary allocation and debt restructuring by raising of sovereign guarantee bonds.