Fifteen Years Late
Business India|April 10 2017

The BSNL-MTNL merger has few takers.

Rakesh Joshi
Fifteen Years Late

The proposed merger between state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar telephone Nigam ltd (MTNL) has raised a number of questions, the main being whether these public sector telecom companies have the same reach as in 2002, when the idea of finding synergies between the two was first mooted by the then telecom minister Pramod Mahajan. Besides, the two PSUs will have to overcome a number of regulatory and operational issues, including bringing parity between the pay scales of the employees of the two companies. The centre will also have to address the complexities around de-listing of MTNL shares.

Even when Mahajan first aired the idea, and a committee under the department of telecom secretary was formed to look into its feasibility, it was found that there were too many bottlenecks, especially in dealing with the concerns of the employee unions of the two companies. BSNL has over two lakh employees and MTNL close to 45,000. The idea was then put on the backburner.

This story is from the April 10 2017 edition of Business India.

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This story is from the April 10 2017 edition of Business India.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.