BSNL reports operating profit of Rs 672 crore for FY15

New Delhi: In a sign of turnaround, state-run telecom operator BSNL today reported an operating profit of Rs 672 crore for the financial year 2015, aided by fall in administrative costs and jump in revenues.

The company's net loss stood at Rs 8,234 crore for the fiscal, the same for which was Rs 7,020 crore in last year and the widening is on account of asset depreciation calculated as per the Companies Act, 2013.

If calculated under the previous Companies Act, the net loss would have come down to Rs 5,370 crore.

"BSNL had bad results for the last few years, but in year 2014-15, it has been able to reverse the trend.

"Also, it is a known fact that most of the telecom majors are having heavy debt burdens but it still continues to be relatively better, showing a low debt-equity ratio," said BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava.

The company further expects a revenue of Rs 4,700 crore from monetisation of land assets and setting up of a tower subsidiary.

The office and administrative expenses have decreased to Rs 10,840 crore for the reported fiscal as compared to Rs 11,008 crore last year while the employee costs have decreased to Rs 14,963 crore from Rs 15,436 crore.

The company said its employee strength has decreased to 2.25 lakh as on March 2015 as compared to 2.38 lakh in March 2014, reducing the burden of employee costs. BSNL had posted an operating loss of Rs 691 crore in the previous fiscal though in 2012-13, it declared an operating profit of Rs 916 crore.

Shrivastava said income from services increased by 4.16 per cent to Rs 27,242 crore in 2014-15, which is highest in comparison to the previous five years.
Income from services stood at Rs 26,153 crore in 2013-14.

Total income of the company increased to Rs 28,645 crore as compared to Rs 27,996 crore.

The BSNL CMD said efforts for revival are bearing fruits as the company has witnessed tremendous growth in gross mobile connections per month.

The company has also gone mobile number portability (MNP) positive since July 2015 for the first time (Port in 1,57,564 customers and Port out 1,24,158 customers).

He added that the debt equity ratio of BSNL is around 0.13 per cent, which is lowest in the industry.

Shrivastava said BSNL is making relentless efforts to revive itself under the leadership of Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who is very keen to restore the pristine glory of the company.

BSNL will be investing Rs 7,700 crore in the current financial year to expand network. The company also plans to launch 4G LTE services on 2600 MHz band in a couple of cities by the end of March.

Besides, the company is increasing its mobile network data capacity to enhance the coverage and quality of service. A super highway transport network is planned to improve data connectivity to all state capitals and major cities.

The state-run firm has decided to form a separate infrastructure company for tower business with 64,500 towers and an expected Rs 2,200 crore revenue in next 2-4 years.

It is also planning to monetise its land assets which may generate Rs 2,500 crore revenue.

Apart from that, it has taken various customer centric initiatives such as free night calling, free roaming and providing a minimum broadband speed of 2 mbps.

Shrivastava said, in 2006, BSNL was the number one operator in mobile and landline services as it was able to expand its network but during 2006-2012, it was not able to procure equipment, which led to its downfall.

"The market expanded rapidly during this period and we failed to expand our network because of non procurement of equipment and we missed the voice opportunity," he said.
Shrivastava though added that these days, data is growing rapidly and they are investing heavily for data.

"BSNL is focussing on data. Currently, 10 per cent of the revenue is coming from mobile data," he said.

The CMD further said that BSNL has started to monetise its towers by entering into agreements with other operators and there is 42 per cent increase in tower business.

"A tower subsidiary will be created as the Cabinet has already cleared the proposal for that," Shrivastava said.