Quelling the rumours, the Centre on Wednesday clarified that there are no plans under consideration with regard to state-owned BSNL’s privatisation.
Informing the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said that there is no delay or deficiency in services provided by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) due to the implementation of voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) in early 2020.
The current strength of employees is sufficient for the operation of the state-owned telecom corporation, Chauhan said.
“There is no plan under consideration for disinvestment of BSNL,” Chauhan said in reply to a question related to immovable assets of BSNL.
The value of immovable assets, including buildings, lands, towers, telecom equipment and non-telecom equipment as of March 31, 2021, adds to Rs 89,878 crore (total netblock), as per audited financials, PTI reported.
As of December 31, 2021, the all-India market share of BSNL stood at 9.90 per cent for mobile subscribers, and 15.40 per cent for wired broadband subscribers.
The government had approved a revival plan for BSNL in October 2019, which included measures to reduce the staff cost through a VRS for employees of 50 years of age and above, administrative allotment of spectrum for providing 4G services with funding through budgetary allocation, monetisation of non-core and core assets to generate resources to retire debt, meet capital expenditure and other requirement and debt restructuring by raising of sovereign guarantee bonds.”As a result of these measures, BSNL has become EBITDA positive (operating profit) in 2020-21,” Chauhan said.
Last year, an officers group of BSNL had asked the Centre to keep the telco off its divestment list and focus on revival, saying it has “potential to turn a corner”.
According to a report by the Economic Times, the officers group said the company operates in a strategic sector and the focus should be on “faster revival” through foray into commercial 4G space.
K Sebastin, secretary-general of the Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Association (SNEA) said, “Niti Aayog should not think about BSNL’s disinvestment. The government decided to revive it, and if 4G launch is taking place early, it will have a great potential to grow, and 5G can also be launched soon.”
