State-owned BSNL expects to be profitable in four years and has started registering rise in income from services, Parliament was informed today.
"BSNL expects to turn profitable in next four years or so, for which BSNL is taking several steps like augmentation of mobile network," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Revenue of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) during the last financial year was Rs 28,645 crore. As per BSNL, the company's net loss stood at Rs 8,234 crore for 2014-15, the minister said.
"Being a commercial organisation, it is the constant endeavour of BSNL to compete in the market, increase its revenue and make profits," Prasad said.
BSNL reported an operating profit of Rs 672 crore for 2014-15, aided by a fall in administrative costs and jump in revenue.
It had posted an operating loss of Rs 691 crore in 2013-14, though in 2012-13 it declared an operating profit of Rs 916 crore.
Prasad said that due to continuous efforts of BSNL, income from services increased by 4.16 percent in 2014-15 compared to the previous fiscal.
"Till June 2015, the average monthly gross mobile connections used to be in the range of 8 lakhs. From July 2015, this has gone up to an average of 15 lakhs," he said.
The state-run telecom firm also gained customers from mobile number portability (MNP) service.
"BSNL was MNP positive in the months of July, August, September 2015 and January 2016," Prasad said.
He further said BSNL has increased mobile network capacity under Phase-7 of its expansion plan and is setting up wifi hotspots on revenue sharing basis.
"Government has also assigned new projects to BSNL such as Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North Eastern region for provision of mobile services in uncovered villages...at an estimated project cost of Rs 1975.38 crore and implementation of transmission media plan for NE region at estimated cost of Rs 295.97 crore," Prasad said.
BSNL has also been given the task to roll out mobile towers at 2,199 locations in Left wing extremism affected areas at an estimated cost of Rs 3,567.58 crore and a project to augment connectivity at Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep islands at an estimated cost of Rs 99.03 crore, he added.
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