Industry & Economy
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Disinvestment
Info-Tech
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Telecommunications
`No privatisation of BSNL, MTNL in near term'
Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Dec. 12
THE Government has ruled out privatisation of the state-owned telecom majors, BSNL and MTNL in the near term.
The Minister for Communications, Mr Pramod Mahajan, told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that in the near term, both these companies would not be handed over to the private sector. The Minister for Disinvestment, Mr Arun Shourie, had said in Parliament a couple of days ago that no decision had been taken in respect of disinvestment of the Government's equity in BSNL.
The Government had earlier considered a proposal to merge the two PSUs. The Department of Telecommunications, which examined the issue, was of the view that the proposal to merge the two was not only time consuming but would also face resistance from shareholders and employees. Instead, it mooted a proposal to make MTNL a subsidiary of BSNL by transferring the Government's equity holding of 56.25 per cent.
Mr Mahajan told the Rajya Sabha that BSNL and VSNL had signed an agreement over sharing of revenue in the international long distance service on November 18. This agreement provides for sharing of revenue from international long distance tariffs based on distance and volumes from August 1, 2002 to March 31, 2003.
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