Government rules out plans of disinvestment of BSNL and MTNL

The government has announced that it has no plans to sell stake in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

Moreover, the government has fixed a target to get Rs 2 billion and Rs 3 billion from their asset monetisation of BSNL and MTNL, respectively, in current fiscal.

The specific assets to be monetised during the current fiscal year, however, have not yet been identified.

As per government data, BSNL’s losses increased from Rs 47.93 billion in 2016-17 to Rs 79.93 billion in 2017-18 to Rs 149.03 billion in 2018-19. Meanwhile, MTNL’s losses increased from Rs 29.71 billion in 2017-18 to Rs 33.98 billion in 2018-19.