The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plans to establish a committee to examine the divestment procedure of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) (now Tata Communications) in 2002.
The panel will probe whether the process that was followed was transparent and fair and will submit its report by March 31, 2011.
The committee is expected to examine whether the decision of demerger of the 773-acre land was taken keeping in mind the interest of investors and the government.
The Tata Group had put the highest bid to take control over VSNL after the government had put it on the block for divestment. Reliance Communications too had bid for the company.
DoT has said that the shareholders agreement puts the responsibility of the company?s strategic partner, which in this case was a subsidiary of Tata Sons, to not only hive off or demerge the surplus land into a resulting company but also prohibit it from causing directly or indirectly any acts that might adversely effect or delay the hiving off or demerger of the land.
However it has been contended that the Tata Group was not interested in hiving off the surplus land, as in an event of a status quo, the company could retail the entire land by paying only 25 per cent of the value to the Government. The Tata Group has denied the allegations.
DoT has been saying that the government should have transferred the surplus land before divesting the company as the differences between the Tata Group and the government has lead to a huge delay in the sale of the surplus land.
