BSNL revenue rises in current fiscal, expenses cut down

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, January 31

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has registered an increase in revenue in Ludhiana telecom district during the current financial year as compared to the previous fiscal, officials have said.

While the income has gone up, expenses have also been cut down in 2023-24, the BSNL has revealed.

It was disclosed by Ludhiana General Manager (GM) Telecom AA Tazir during the meeting of the Telecom Advisory Committee (TAC) here recently.

Rajya Sabha MP Sanjeev Arora, who attended the meeting as a TAC member, told The Tribune on Wednesday that the comparative statement of two years in terms of revenue verticals presented by the BSNL, Ludhiana district, has showed that the PSU has earned Rs 39.45 crore income in the first three quarters of the current fiscal till December 31, 2023, which was much higher than the total income of Rs 37.56 crore logged by the BSNL Ludhiana telecom district during the entire financial year 2022-23.

The vertical-wise income figures revealed that the maximum of Rs 19.93 crore was earned from consumer fixed access (CFA), which comprised wire line and broadband business, in the first nine months of current fiscal as compared to Rs 19.03 crore income generated from this segment during 2022-23.

Revenue of Rs 9.91 crore was earned from consumer mobility (CM) between April and December 2023 as compared to Rs 7.82 crore income generated from this vertical during 2022-23.

Under the enterprise business (EB) category, the BSNL, Ludhiana, earned Rs 9.61 crore in the first three quarters of this fiscal as compared to Rs 10.71 crore revenue generated from this segment during 2022-23.

Besides logging the increase in the income, the PSU’s local district also brought down the expenses from Rs 67.2 crore during the previous financial year 2022-23 to Rs 50.63 crore between April and December 2023.

With this, the negative growth of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) of the Ludhiana BSNL district also registered a decline from Rs 13.92 crore in 2022-23 to Rs 3.92 crore during the first three quarters of the current fiscal.

The major component of the expenses was consumed in salary bill of Rs 21.54 crore between April and December 2023, followed by Rs 9.92 crore paid as commission to franchises, Rs 7.8 crore financial/ depreciation cost, Rs 5.63 crore paid as electricity and fuel bills, Rs 2.02 crore building rent, Rs 1.33 crore was spent on repair and maintenance, Rs 14 lakh on vehicle expenses and Rs 55 lakh were spent on other expenses during the current financial year’s first three quarters.

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