With speculations rising on privatising state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), the Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on 22 July said that the government has no such plans.
“MTNL has been incurring losses since 2016-17, and its loss stood at ₹2,617 crore for the year 2021-22,” Chauhan said, adding, “There is no plan to privatise MTNL.”
In October 2019, the government approved the revival plan for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and MTNL in which an in-principle nod for the merger of the two state-owned telecom corporations was granted.
However, citing the high debt of MTNL and the adverse financial position of BSNL, the government, in December 2020, deferred the merger till MTNL’s debt position improves.
The minister, while replying to another question, said the Cabinet in its meeting on 14 June had reserved the spectrum for BSNL for providing 5G services.
“Testing of Indian make 4G equipment, under Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, is already at advance stage and the delivery of the equipment will commence after completion of the testing,” Chauhan said.
People will start getting benefitted once this equipment is deployed and commissioned, he observed.
On the dues of spectrum charges, the minister replied that the total licence fee (LF) and Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) dues up to FY2018-19 for major telecom service providers stood at about ₹1,62,654.4 crore.
According of official figures made available, the cumulative dues of telecom service providers, which have opted for a moratorium scheme, add up to ₹1,02,325 crore.
Among this, Bharti Group’s LF and SUC dues up to the financial year 2018-19 came to about ₹29,856 crore, while that of Vodafone Idea was ₹59,236.8 crore. While, LF and SUC dues of Reliance Jio Infocomm were at ₹406.4 crore.
The assessment of such dues is an ongoing process and subject to revision based on representation, audits and litigation.
“For addressing the financial stress in the sector, the government has given an option of moratorium of up to four years on LF and SUC dues assessed up to FY 2018-19, to be paid by the licensees in yearly instalments by 31.03.2031,” the minister said.
