BSNL Employees Union has issued the following statement on September 2

THE BSNL management has once again failed to disburse salary to its employees for the month of August 2019. It is regrettable to note that the management is not even able to tell the employees, as to when this salary disbursement will take place. This is the third time in this year, that the BSNL management is unable to disburse salary to its employees on time. BSNL Employees Union has already given a call to organise protest demonstrations throughout the country on September 3, demanding immediate disbursement of the salary.

The DoT and the BSNL management could have very well arranged disbursement of the August salary on time. A huge amount has to be returned to BSNL, by the government, on account of excess payment already made by the BSNL management, towards pension contribution. According to the information of the union, some other payments have also become due to BSNL, from the DoT.

It is the firm view of the BSNLEU that the non-disbursement of salary on time, is a clear cut attempt by the DoT and the BSNL management, to create panic and frustration in the minds of the BSNL employees, with the view to compel them to go on VRS, which is being contemplated to be introduced shortly by the government and the BSNL management.

BSNL’s debt is very small, compared to the debt of the private telecom companies, whose debt is in the range of lakhs of crores of rupees. In the meeting held in the PMO on August 20, the CEO, NITI Aayog and the secretary, DFS, were directed to hold meetings with the chairman of the State Bank of India and the chairman of the Bank of India to address the issues relating to future lending to BSNL and MTNL. It is not known what action has been taken, according to the above decision of the PMO, to enable BSNL to get bank loans.

It is an open secret that, the present liquidity crunch being faced by the BSNL is due to the drastic dip in its revenue collections, which, in turn, is the fall-out of the predatory pricings being practiced by the Reliance Jio. BSNL’s revenue collections have dipped from Rs 32,000 crores to Rs18,000 crores due to the above mentioned reason. The government has not taken any meaningful action to curb the predatory pricings being practiced by Reliance Jio, and to save the telecom industry from a serious crisis.

BSNLEU, as well as the all unions and associations of BSNL (AUAB) have already demanded that the government should extend soft loan to BSNL, to meet the company’s short term and long term financial requirements. It is not out of context to mention here that, the government of India has extended soft loan to 63 countries, amounting to Rs 1,96,000 crores. In the present circumstances, BSNLEU once again demands that, the government of India and the BSNL management should immediately take needful action to extend soft loan to BSNL. BSNLEU also demands that the DoT and the BSNL management should take meaningful action to ensure the immediate disbursement of the August salary to the employees.