Govt approves ₹6,982 crore additional capex support for BSNL in 2025

The government has approved ₹6,982 crore as additional capital expenditure (capex) support for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in 2025 to accelerate the rollout of its 4G network, Parliament was informed on Thursday.

The latest support comes on top of the ₹3.22 lakh crore revival assistance extended to the state-run telecom company in various tranches, beginning with a ₹69,000 crore package in 2019, a ₹1.64 lakh crore package in 2022, and allotment of 4G and 5G spectrum worth ₹89,000 crore in 2023.

“In 2025, an additional amount of ₹6,982 crore has been approved as additional capex support for the rollout of 4G network by BSNL across the country,” Minister of State for Telecom Pemmasani Chandrasekhar said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

As of July 31, BSNL has installed 96,300 sites for 4G services, out of which 91,281 are operational.

The minister said that due to the revival packages, BSNL has started earning operating profits from FY 2020-21.

“BSNL has earned net profit of ₹262 crore and ₹280 crore in quarters 3 and 4 of FY25, respectively,” he said.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said last week that the government has lined up another ₹47,000 crore capex plan for BSNL to further boost network expansion.

“We have another close to ₹47,000 crore capex plan in place for BSNL. Meanwhile, BSNL has done its highest-ever capex of ₹25,000 crore during last year,” DoT quoted Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia as saying on X.

Scindia has directed BSNL to expand its mobile service business by 50% over the next year, while asking units to increase enterprise business by 25–30% and fixed line operations by at least 15–20%.

BSNL marked a major turnaround in FY25, reporting its first back-to-back quarterly net profits in 18 years. The company posted a profit after tax (PAT) of ₹280 crore in the March quarter of FY25, following a ₹262 crore net profit in the December quarter, reversing a ₹849 crore loss in Q4 of FY24.

The public sector telecom firm also slashed its annual net loss by 58% to ₹2,247 crore in FY25 from ₹5,370 crore a year earlier.