BSNL narrowed FY18 loss to Rs 47.85 bn, revenue declines to Rs 278 bn: Govt

State-run telecom company BSNL has narrowed its loss to Rs 47.85 billion during 2017-18, even as its income declined to Rs 278.18 billion as against the previous fiscal, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

BSNL posted a loss of Rs 48.59 billion in 2015-16, Rs 47.86 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 47.85 billion (provisional and unaudited) in 2017-18, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

The company's income stood at Rs 324.11 billion (FY16), Rs 315.33 billion (FY17) and Rs 278.18 billion in FY18 (provisional and unaudited), he added.

Since BSNL has incurred losses consecutively for the last three years, it has been declared as 'Incipient Sick' as per the guidelines of Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), the minister said.

Accordingly, action has been initiated by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for preparation of revival/restructuring plan of BSNL, he added.

MTNL, another state-run telecom firm, reported a loss of Rs 29.71 billion in FY18. This was against a similar amount in FY17 and Rs 20.06 billion in FY16.

The company, which has operations in Delhi and Mumbai, saw its income declining to Rs 31.16 billion in 2017-18 from Rs 35.52 billion in 2016-17 and Rs 35.13 billion in 2015-16.

Sinha said at present, there is no proposal for merger of BSNL and MTNL.

"For merger of BSNL and MTNL, there are various challenges/issues related to their employees, debt, properties, government share holding in MTNL etc," he added.