Govt pushes for revival of BSNL, MTNL; committee of secretaries to meet on 4 July

New Delhi: A committee of secretaries will meet on July for restructuring of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) to decide the fate of the ailing state-run telecom companies.

The committee of secretaries will discuss 4 main options to revive BSNL & MTNL, sources said, adding that sale of the assets currently being possessed by both the companies will also be discussed.

Sources told Zee Media that land ,onetization is being seen as an option to provide funds or financial support to cash crunch companies.

Talks on merger of BSNL and MTNL merger will also be on the agenda of discussion. Sources said that both BSNL and MTNL have a huge number of employees and government may look for an option to provide VRS to employees before going ahead with the merger plans.

Government is also of a view that to revive BSNL it needs to have an extra edge with the competitors. 5G Technology, involves huge cost, and if gets does not get any bidder then BSNL may be the only player to offer 5G service in future.

BSNL and MTNL are facing severe cash crunch that has even led to the companies admitting that they may not have enough funds to pay June salaries to employees.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had yesterday informed the Lok Sabha Prasad that the employee cost of BSNL is 75.06 percent and that of MTNL is 87.15 percent of their total income, while the same for private telecom companies varies between 2.9 to 5 percent. The government wants to take care of the employees and yet revive these PSUs for fair competition in market, he added.