Lok Sabha Question No. 1874 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: Assessment of BSNL
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Mansukhbhai Dhanjibhai Vasava, Giridhari Yadav

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1874 TO BE ANSWERED ON 3 RD  JULY, 2019

## ASSESSMENT OF BSNL

## †1874. SHRI MANSUKHBHAI DHANJIBHAI VASAVA: SHRI GIRIDHARI YADAV:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is the only enterprise among the others Central  Public  Sector  Enterprises  which  is  facing  excessive  loss  to  the  tune  of  more  than Rs. 1000 crore;
- (b) if so, the details thererof alongwith the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether the Government has conducted any study/assessment with regard to the services offered by the BSNL and if so, the details and the findings thereof including the reasons for the reported poor services offered by the said Public Sector Unit; and
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  initiated  any  action  against  BSNL  officials  charged  with dereliction of duty and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a) & (b) As per information available in Public Enterprises Survey 2017-18 brought out by Department  of  Public  Enterprises  (DPE),  the following  eight (8) Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) have incurred losses more than Rs 1000 crores as on 31.03.2018.:-

|   S.No. | Name of CPSE                                 |
|---------|----------------------------------------------|
|       1 | Bharat Coking Coal Ltd.                      |
|       2 | Western Coalfields Ltd.                      |
|       3 | Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd.                   |
|       4 | Hindustan Photo Films Manufacturing Co. Ltd. |
|       5 | Air India Ltd.                               |
|       6 | India Infrastructure Finance Co. Ltd.        |
|       7 | Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)          |
|       8 | Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL)     |

As per the survey, the general reasons for losses / sickness in CPSEs vary from enterprise to enterprise. However, some common problems for sickness in CPSEs include old and obsolete plant and machinery, outdated technology, low capacity utilization, low productivity, poor debtequity structure, excess manpower, stiff competition, heavy interest burden, etc.

Low tariffs due to stiff competition in mobile segment, high employee cost and absence of 4G services (except in few places for BSNL) in the data-centric telecom market are the main reasons for losses to BSNL.

(c) Telecom  Regulatory  Authority  of  India  (TRAI)  monitors  the  performance  of  telecom service providers including BSNL against the benchmark for various Quality of Service (QoS) parameters laid down by TRAI by way of QoS regulations issued from time to time, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs).

As  per  latest  PMR  issued  by  TRAI,  for  the  quarter  ending  March  2019,  for  Cellular Mobile Telephone Services, BSNL is meeting the benchmarks for all the parameters in all the service areas, except the parameters for assessing call drop in  West Bengal Service area only. For Basic Wireline Telephone Services, BSNL is meeting the benchmarks for all the parameters in all the service areas, except the parameter for 'Response time to the customer for Assistance' in Karnataka Service area only, which was 94.67% against the benchmark of >95%.

(d) BSNL has reported  that  disciplinary  action  is  taken  against  officials  for  dereliction  of duties  as  per  BSNL  Conduct  Rules.    BSNL  has  retired  a  total  of  eight  (8)  officials  under periodical  review  of  employees  to  maintain  efficacy  and  probity  under  BSNL  Conduct  Rules during last three years.  Details of Charge Sheets issued and Suspension of employees of BSNL during last three years are as under:

| S. No.   | Year    |   No. of Charge Sheets issued in vigilance cases |   No. of Charge Sheets issued for administrative reasons |   No. of suspension cases |
|----------|---------|--------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------|
| 1        | 2016-17 |                                              637 |                                                        2 |                         2 |
| 2        | 2017-18 |                                              558 |                                                       17 |                        55 |
| 3        | 2018-19 |                                              833 |                                                      206 |                        67 |
|          | Total : |                                             2028 |                                                      225 |                       124 |

Chief  Vigilance  Officer  (CVO),  Department  of  Telecommunications  has  informed  that appropriate  action  is  taken  under  relevant  rules  and  Central  Vigilance  Commission  (CVC) guidelines,  as  and  when  the  charges,  including  charges  of  lack  of  devotion  to  duty  against officials working in / deputed to BSNL, are received.  Number of officials against whom action has been taken during last three years are as under:

|   Calendar Year |   No. of officials against whom action taken |
|-----------------|----------------------------------------------|
|            2016 |                                           30 |
|            2017 |                                           53 |
|            2018 |                                           44 |

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