State-owned BSNL is confident of making timely payment of staff salaries for the month of May, Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said on Monday.

The company has also tied up with State Bank of India recently for a ₹ 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.

The salary tab of nearly ₹ 900 crore would be supported by receivables from mobile, broadband and enterprise businesses, he said. The telecom PSU, which has 1.68 lakh employees, faced a problem in clearing staff salaries for February.

The government last month extended an approval and letter of comfort for the PSU to avail loans of up to ₹ 3,500 crore from banks for working capital needs - a move that is expected to spell relief for the company battling intense liquidity pressure.

Shrivastava said following the approval and letter of comfort from DoT, the company has tied up with SBI for a loan of about ₹ 1,500 crore, recently.

The rest of the amount would be availed depending on the company’s requirements, he said adding that talks were on with multiple banks.

“With the letter of comfort, we can approach banks for loans of up to ₹ 3,500 crore. While loans of up to ₹ 1,500 crore have been tied up, for the balance, we will take as needed, maybe by July this year,” Shrivastava said.

The loan from SBI is short-term borrowing, he said.

“This will be used for operational expenditure and working capital needs. We have sufficient land assets and net worth to support our borrowing,” he said.

The government is in the process of working out a rescue plan in the form of a revival package that entails components like Voluntary Retirement Scheme, asset monetisation, and allocation of 4G spectrum.

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