The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Wednesday extended the additional charge of PK Purwar as chairman and managing director of loss-making telecom firm MTNL for a period of one year.

Purwar also holds the position of chairman and managing director of debt-ridden firm BSNL.

"The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the extension of the additional charge of the post of Chairman and Managing Director, MTNL assigned to Sh PK Purwar, CMD of BSNL for a further period of one year w.e.f 15-10-2021 to 14-10-2022 or until further orders, whichever is earlier," the order dated September 29 said.

Purwar has held the top position at MTNL for about five and half years.

The government has announced the merger of BSNL and MTNL, which is yet to be firmed up.

It had offered a combined revival package of about Rs 69,000 crore to BSNL and MTNL in October 2019 that has helped both telecom PSUs in lowering their losses.

According to official data, losses of BSNL have narrowed to Rs 7,441 crore in 2020-21 from Rs 15,500 crore in 2019-20.

MTNL reported a total loss of Rs 2,554 crore for the last fiscal compared to Rs 3,811 crore in 2019-20.