For bailouts to work, BSNL needs the freedom to perform

livemint.com:

₹1.64 lakh crore revival package for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) – its chairman and managing director called on all employees to “perform or perish". Pointing out – rightly – that the revival package was one of its kind among public-sector undertakings, CMD PK Purwar said it had been cleared by the prime minister himself, with a clear message to the staff of the ailing public sector behemoth. Purwar minced no words in listing BSNL’s issues.

All employees, he said, were “expected to give 10 to 12 hours of productive work every day," and “lethargic, non-performance will lead to serious and harsh action". He also warned that corruption would be “dealt [with] very seriously with zero tolerance" and that key performance indicators (KPIs) would be drawn up for all employees, who would have their performance reviewed every week. Calling for a network uptime of 98-99 % and faults to be cleared “within four hours", he also called for “vigorously increased" sales efforts to improve BSNL’s marketshare in all verticals.

The fact that BSNL’s chief executive had to ask for KPIs for staff, and for managers to be appraised based on actual achievement, shows how little BSNL had actually walked down the corporate path despite transforming from a government department into a company way back in 2000. Purwar’s demands of his team were unexceptionable, especially given the dire straits BSNL was in. The question now is: has the leopard been able to change its spots? The numbers suggest it has not.

In FY23, BSNL incurred a loss of ₹8,161 crore compared to ₹6,982 crore in the previous year (thanks to a higher adjusted gross revenue (AGR) share due to the government). Total expenses rose 5.1% to ₹27,364 crore. Employee costs jumped 11%