Talks involving BSNl management, its employees union and Government were still on over the proposed formation of a new company for handling the public sector telecom major’s mobile towers, a top official said on Saturday. “Right now, the talks are going on.
What we are looking at is about a separate company that will take care of the tower business..,” Bharat Sanchar Nigam ltd Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told reporters here.
Speaking after unveiling free call plan at Rs144 for its customers across the country, he said BSNl employees had reservations over the proposal to float a new company to manage the mobile towers. “The apprehension of the employees is that it should not be run as a private company. The BSNl, including the Board and CMD, should hold control. We are discussing about it with the Government,” he added.
The union cabinet had last year given its nod for hiving off the state-owned firm's tower business into a new company in a bid to revive its flagging fortunes. BSNl mobile tower assets consist of about 64,500 towers and more than 50,000 tower sites have optical fibre cable connectivity. On the company financials Shrivastava said, “our profits declined to Rs691 crore in 2013-14. In 2014-15, EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Tax, Depreciation and Amortization) which was at Rs672 crore jumped to Rs3,855 crore in financial year 2015-16”. “For this year we are looking at EBITDA of Rs4,500 crore. By 2018-19, BSNl will come back to report net profits,” he said.