The government has eliminated the plans to sell stake or disinvestment of telecom PSUs - Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) in the Parliament. Government has fixed a target of Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore for them from their asset monetisation in current fiscal.
As per Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha, the specific assets to be monetised during the current fiscal year. The target for asset monetisation during the current fiscal year for BSNL and MTNL is Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore respectively.
In 2018-19, BSNL’s loss for the year has doubled to nearly Rs 15,000 crore from 2017-18 and revenue has also dwindled to Rs 19,321 crore in fiscal 2019.
The Telecom Minister also wrote that MTNL operates in Delhi and Mumbai whereas BSNL operates in rest of India. The Cabinet has approved the revival plan for BSNL and MTNL which inter-alia, includes in-principle approval for merger of BSNL and MTNL. The merger will help both the PSUs with pan-India footprint, synergy in operations, reduced fixed costs and overheads, sharing of technical infrastructure and enhanced Enterprise Business.
As per the figures given by him in 2018-19, BSNL posed a loss of Rs 14,903 crore and the loss was Rs 7,993 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 4,793 crore in 2016-17. MTNL posted a loss of Rs 3,398 crore in 2018-19, Rs 2,971 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 2016-17 as well.
The revenue of BSNL in 2017-18 was Rs 25,071 crore and Rs 31,533 crore in 2016-17. MTNL's revenue was Rs 3,552 crore in 2016-17, Rs 3,116 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 2,607 crore in 2018-19.
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