Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been awarded multiple relief packages over the last few years. The government allocates funds to the state-run telecom operator to ensure that it continues to offer telecom services at affordable rates to consumers in the market. Today, we will be checking out how much of the money has BSNL utilised over the last 5 years. It will give us a better idea of whether the funds allocated to BSNL are being used in the right way or not.
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BSNL Fund Utilisation Since FY20
In the financial year 2019-20, BSNL was allotted Rs 4,646 crore, and the fund utilised by the company for the same year was Rs 4,452.86 crore. Note that the fund utilised means the fund is going towards capital infusion, viability gap fund, ex-gratia and pension.
For FY21, BSNL was allotted Rs 11,269.24 crore, but the total fund utilised was Rs 12,059.57 crore. This is because the actual expenditure exceeded allocation on account of claims of committed liability such as pension.
In FY22, BSNL was allotted Rs 3,046 crore and its total expenditure was Rs 2,977.11 crore. For FY23, the allotted amount was Rs 54,244.11 crore and the utilised amount was Rs 45,568.79 crore.
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For FY24, the allotted amount is Rs 56,996.75 crore and the fund utilised (up to November 28, 2023) is Rs 42,381 crore.
BSNL is currently in the process of launching 4G services all over India. Devusinh Chauhan, minister of state for communication said that the company has already placed an order for 1 lakh sites to rollout 4G and the same should be done over 24 months. BSNL is using the technology provided by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). TCS will oversee the deployment as well as maintenance of the sites for the next nine years. Another Tata Group company, Tejas Networks is providing the equipment.
