BSNL loss pegged at Rs 14,202 crore in 2018-19

State-owned telecom firm BSNL's loss is estimated to be around Rs 14,000 crore with a decline in revenue to Rs 19,308 crore during 2018-19, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The public sector firm's provisional loss was Rs 4,859 crore in 2015-16, Rs 4,793 crore in 2016-17, Rs 7,993 crore in 2017-18 and is estimated to widen to Rs 14,202 crore in 2018-19, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

"Low tariffs due to fierce competition in the mobile segment, high staff cost and absence of 4G services (except in few places) in the data-centric telecom market are the main reasons for losses of BSNL," Prasad said.

In line with the sector, BSNL has also seen a dip in its revenue after the entry of Reliance Jio in the market in 2016.

The company's revenue is pegged at around Rs 19,308 crore for 2018-19, compared with Rs 25,071 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 31,533 crore in 2016-17.

In 2018-19, salary expenditure accounted for 75 per cent of the firm's total revenue at Rs 14,488 crore, according to the data shared by Prasad.