Dear All ,
Warm greetings to my fellow BSNL colleagues,
I must put on record that your dedication & hard work during past several months is already bearing fruits for BSNL. That our company has most satisfied customers for voice services is a testimony to the tireless efforts put in by all of you during this pandemic period.
After successful VRS and resounding success in raising bonds, BSNL has reported positive earnings before Interest Taxes and Depreciation (EBITDA) for the half year ended 30th September 2020, after a gap of more than three years. The company is under able leadership of our Chairman and our efforts have to be to strengthen his hands in all endeavors.
Having joined as Director (Finance) & CFO of the company at this juncture, I seek to outline the direction and priorities that we must collectively hold in times to come and consolidate the gains to stay relevant in the highly competitive telecom market. Our foremost goal shall be improvement in the revenues of the company from core operations as a long term measure of survival & growth. I must emphasize that sustainable revenues & generation of surplus for capital investment is far better vehicle of growth than borrowings for investment. A sustainable mix of financial resources including debt has to be our constant endeavor, in order to optimally exploit the business opportunity in the market. To this extent, our collective focus has to be on quality of services, availability of network and quick & efficient utilization of resources. Return on Investment needs to pursued religiously.
BSNL today needs to generate at least an additional amount of Rs 500-600 cores every month, in order to meet the monthly deficit of income & expenditure. As a business imperative, BSNL needs to fulfill its obligation of timely payments to its vendor partners, as well as its financiers who have helped the company to emerge out of crisis. Therefore, all of us as individual employees need to focus on how our work can translate to higher cash flows for the company. Circles need to focus on recovering old dues to maximize the cash flows. At the same time, we need to optimize various costs and liabilities. With innovation and commitment circles can improve their cash flows, and liabilities can be curtailed.
BSNL is an organization of strategic importance. Government has reposed immense faith in BSNL, entrusting it with execution of prestigious projects like Bharat Net, NFS project for defense forces, submarine cable project and several other projects of significance. Whereas these external projects have an assured return in commercial terms for BSNL, time & cost overruns result in avoidable slippages of these margins. These projects have to be completed within planned time in order to live up to the expectations & trust of the government as well as ensure commercial value to BSNL.
The trust of the government in BSNL stands reinforced by the recent decision to mandatorily use BSNL services for central government establishments. This expression of faith in your capability came close on heels of the of BSNL bond, which was oversubscribed by more than 100% within a few hours. These events should leave us with no doubt about the magnitude & depth of responsibility which stands vested in us now. BSNL is now obligated to honor several compliance deadlines as laid down by Securities & Exchange Board of India. Our working & financial reporting shall be under scrutiny by investors. The perception and image of the company now will find expression in terms of our valuation in the market, and hence we all, employees & leaders alike, need to act with a sense of great responsibility on matters financial reporting, and always be circumspect in our statements on matters of company’s affairs.
I am certain that all verticals of the company are already oriented towards bearing this responsibility of survival & growth and all of us will work with these central objectives to achieve the vision laid down by our chairman. The challenging times cash upon us equally challenging tasks and I am confident that all BSNL employees will shoulder these challenges with conviction & enthusiasm. From my side, I assure that I shall work in the above direction with my colleagues in the Board.
My sincere thanks to each one of you for your dedication to the organization.
Thank you.
Yojana Das
Director (Finance) & CFO
