Rs 23K-cr BSNL, MTNL assets to be monetised

In the first phase of monetisation, 11 assets of BSNL valued at Rs 18,200 crore, and six assets of MTNL worth Rs 5,158 crore have been approved for monetisation

2 min read Last Updated : Mar 31 2022 | 12:09 PM IST

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) has approved monetisation of about 17 properties of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) valued collectively about Rs 23,358 crore in the first phase.

In the first phase of monetisation, 11 assets of BSNL valued at Rs 18,200 crore, and six assets of MTNL worth Rs 5,158 crore have been approved for monetisation, Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan told Parliament on Wednesday.

Of these, properties identified for monetisation in the first phase, four properties of BSNL whose reserve price was set at Rs 670 crore and two properties of MTNL with base price of Rs 290 crore were taken for e-auction, but bids were received only for one property of MTNL, Chauhan said.

In February, Business Standard had reported that the first ever auction of non-core assets through DIPAM’s asset monetisation portal failed to garner adequate response for land assets of BSNL and MTNL, and the department had asked its property consultants to identify issues in the bidding criteria that can be resolved.

These properties included BSNL’s land in Hyderabad (about Rs 400 crore) land in Rajpura (nearly Rs 70 crore) a 5-acre land in Bhavnagar (Rs 41 crore) and an 11-acre land in Kolkata (Rs 161 crore). MTNL’s 1.36-acre property in Mumbai valued at Rs 270 crore, and 20 residential flats valued about Rs 20 crore, were also put up for auctioning. Monetisation of these six properties of the two telcos was part of the revival package announced by the Centre in 2019, and the Department of Telecom was expecting Rs 3,000 crore from sale.

From the announcement of the revival package for BSNL and MTNL in October 2019 to February 2021, BSNL has been able to generate Rs 242 crore from monetisation of land and building assets, Parliament was informed last year.

With regards to the six properties that were put on the block earlier, the Centre is considering relaxing some norms that led to the failure in attracting bids for these assets.