PMO advises DoT to help BSNL with wage bill till June

New Delhi: The Prime Ministers’ Office on Friday took stock of the telecom sector’s financial position, including two ailing PSUS, and is learnt to have asked Department of Telecom to support BSNL, currently going through a huge financial crisis leading to salary default, till a new government takes over in June.

The time has been sought as the PSU may find it hard to get the revenues up and going for meeting a huge monthly wage bill of Rs 1,200 crore, sources said.

Sources said with polls around, the government does not want 1.76 lakh employees should face any salary issues. The BSNL’s VRS scheme amounting to Rs 6,535 crore will be taken up by the new goverment. The Prime Ministers’s Office, according to highly placed sources, has asked DoT to support and take care of BSNL’s wage bill in whatever ways till July.