Dismissing media reports as rumours, telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Tamil Nadu Circle on Tuesday said there is no proposal to close down the company.

In a statement issued here, the company said: "There is no proposal to close down BSNL as wrongly reported in a section of the press.

New Delhi: State-run telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Saturday cleared June salary of all its employees, while it awaits clearance of around ₹14,000 crore in dues from the telecom department.

"BSNL has cleared salary payments of all employees for June from internal accruals of about ₹2,000 crore," an official source, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

Addressing financial stress in the telecom sector after the upcoming spectrum auction, the revival of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) with “least pressure” on the government, and ensuring “fair competition” will be priority for Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

This is besides establishing India as the manufacturing and export hub of electronics.

The government Wednesday clarified there is no proposal to close state-run BSNL and MTNL, which are facing financial stress due to stiff competition and high employee costs, and added that a comprehensive plan for their revival is under preparation.

The government is likely to announce a revival package for state-run telecom firms BSNLand MTNL in the next few days as a severe cash crunch has again jeopardised timely payment of salaries for June.

According to sources, cabinet secretary PK Sinha on Tuesday held a more than an hour-long meeting with department of telecommunications (DoT) officials, including secretary Aruna Sundararajan, to chart out a revival plan.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is learnt to have asked state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) to put all tenders and purchase order on hold, as the company is facing financial crisis.

The finance department of BSNL issued order in this regard on June 2, directing all its circle heads to take prior approval of corporate officer located in Delhi before floating any new tenders for capital expenditure, according to official sources.

The country's telecom subscriber base grew marginally to 1,183.77 million in April on account of net mobile customers gain by Reliance Jio and state-run telecom firm BSNL, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report released Monday.

Notwithstanding the delay in the allotment of 4G spectrum, state-run telecom player BSNL has readied an investment plan of Rs 10,000 crore for the deployment of 4G network.

It has already started offering 4G VoLTE services through its 3G spectrum with new base transceiver stations (BTSs) in all circles where it already offers 3G services.

BSNL is expected to provide salaries for May on time, which is the last working day of the month. “We are comfortable…We will be able to pay salaries on time this month,” BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said.

The company has recently tied up with State Bank of India for a Rs 1,500-crore loan to meet its working capital requirements, based on a letter of comfort extended by Department of Telecom.

State-owned BSNL is confident of making timely payment of staff salaries for the month of May, Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said Monday. The company has also tied up with State Bank of India recently for a Rs 1,500 crore loan to meet its working capital requirements, based on a letter of comfort extended by Department of Telecom (DoT). “We are comfortable…We will be able to pay salaries on time this month,” Shrivastava told PTI.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.