The Department of Telecom (DoT) on Wednesday made a preliminary presentation on the present financial status of BSNl and MTNl to the Group of Ministers looking into the revival strategy of the state-owned telecom firms but no merger plan came up for discussion.
"The preliminary presentation has been made and the issues have been crystalised...Next time we (DoT) will make a detailed presentation on certain issues and then the GoM will take some decisions in principle on those issues," Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal told reporters here.
Asked about the merger plans between BSNl and MTNl, Sibal said: "We have not discussed (it) yet." The GoM, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, met for the first time since it was constituted after Sibal in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh raised concerns over the future of the two loss-making PSUs.
Sibal said the next meeting of the GoM is likely to be held soon. The DoT in its presentation indicated that the cash reserves of the PSU firms depleted post the purchase of BWA and 3G spectrum at auction determined price in 2010. Both the firms jointly shelled out Rs 29,598.35 crore for 3G and BWA airwaves. For 3G services, BSNl was asked to pay Rs 10,186.58 crore and MTNl Rs 6,564 crore. BWA spectrum jointly costed these firms Rs 12,847.77 crore.
"We have basically indicated how both MTNl as well as BSNl were obliged to purchase the BWA spectrum and of course paid for the 3G spectrum at the prices discovered in 2010," Sibal said. MTNl reported widening of the net loss to Rs 5,321.12 crore for financial year 2012-13 compared to Rs 4,109.78 crore in FY'12.