Govt asks BSNL and MTNL to identify low-value assets for monetisation

Government companies, BSNL and MTNL, have been asked by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to come up with a list of assets that can be monetised, a Financial Express (FE) report said.

People aware of the specifics of the development told FE that the government had asked these firms to identify core and non-core assets with a value of up to Rs 10 crore that can be monetised.

BSNL is expected to begin listing at least ten such assets in each circle. It should be noted that BSNL's operations are divided into several telecom circles, such as Andaman and Nicobar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Haryana, to name a few.

The report added that BSNL and MTNL had received financial assistance from the government under the Rs 1.64 trillion revival package. However, asset monetisation remains a key policy for the government to repay debts in time and plan for capital expenditure requirements.

To this end, chief general managers (CGMs) of all circles have been asked to identify assets owned by the BSNL board which can be easily monetised.

According to the FE report, CGMs have been asked to prepare the list of items within three months. Based on that, BSNL will share the monetisation targets with the government.

To facilitate the process, the government has approved advisors for nine assets with BSNL. The value of these assets is estimated to be around Rs 50 crore.

The government is now moving to identify assets that are smaller in value, as it has earlier failed to monetise assets of higher value.

Notably, assets with a value of less than Rs 10 crore can be monetised without the approval of the Group of Ministers (GoM). On the other hand, assets between Rs 10 crore and Rs 100 crore will need GoM approval.

To monetise assets worth more than Rs 100 crore, approval by the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) is required.