No decision on BSNL- MTNL merger: Manoj Sinha

Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has recently said that it has not taken any decision on the merger of MTNL and BSNL.

He said, "We have not taken any decision on the merger issue."

In fact last year in November, Manoj Sinha had also said in written reply to the Rajya Sabha that, "In a case of MTNL, it has been going slow in up gradation of equipment during the last 4-5 years due to severe financial problems. MTNL is under serious debt burden and is borrowing money to meet its day to day requirements."

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is offering services in Delhi and Mumbai and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), on the other hand, is operating across rest of India.

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To recall it was also reported that the Department of Telecom (DOT) is again discussing options to merge two loss-making BSNL and MTNL. The meeting was taken by former telecom secretary JS Deepak as both the PSUs are under stress due to competition in the telecom industry.

BSNL also shows its interest in picking up mobile operations of MTNL in Gurgaon, Noida, and Faridabad and the idea of the merger were first suggested by former telecom minister Pramod Mahajan.

MTNL's standalone net loss has surpassed its total revenue, during the three-month period ended December 31. The net loss surpassed its total income of Rs 690.59 crore.

However, the losses of BSNL narrowed to Rs 4,890 crore for the April-December period of the current fiscal, from Rs 6,121 crore in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, both public sector utilities have market share of about 9 percent as per telecom regulator Trai, as of December 31.