Comprehensive Plan for Revival of BSNL, MTNL Under Preparation: Telecom Minister

The government on Wednesday clarified there is no proposal to close state-run BSNL and MTNL, which are facing financial stress due to stiff competition and high employee costs, and added that a comprehensive plan for their revival is under preparation. “No proposal of the closure of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) is under consideration,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed the Lok Sabha.

  • Make Telecom Talk My Trusted Source
  • Source of Google
  • Source of Google

BSNL,MTNL,BSNL Financial Works,BSNL Employee Count,MTNL Employee Count

In a separate reply, he said there was no such proposal under consideration for BSNL as well.

“Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and M/s Deloitte were engaged to facilitate the preparation of the revival/ restructuring plan of BSNL and MTNL respectively. Pursuant to their recommendations and approval of respective Boards, a comprehensive revival plan for BSNL and MTNL is under preparation,” Prasad added, as reported by PTI.

The loss-making telecom firms have approached the Department of Telecom for immediate help as they are facing financial stress, which has aggravated due to the tariff war triggered by the entry of Reliance Jio.

Prasad further said the employee cost of BSNL is 75.06 per cent and that of MTNL is 87.15% of their total income, while the same for private telecom companies varies between 2.9 to 5%.

The government wants to take care of the employees and yet revive these PSUs for fair competition in the market, he added.

According to data shared in the Lok Sabha, the market share of MTNL in the two circles where it operates has declined to 6.95 per cent at the end of 2018-19 from 7.37% in 2016-17.