Union Minister of State for Communications said that the government is not thinking of alienating the assets of BSNL

At present, the government is not thinking of selling the properties of state-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited or BSNL. State Communications Minister Debusingh Chouhan made this announcement while standing in Parliament on Wednesday. He has also given a written assurance in this regard in the Lok Sabha. The Minister also said that BSNL will not be negligent in providing services due to the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) adopted in 2020. In addition, yesterday’s words of the Union Minister of State hinted at the future plans of the government with regard to BSNL.

In fact, the question on the existing immovable assets of BSNL was raised in Parliament on Wednesday. These include the Company’s numerous buildings or buildings, land, towers, telecommunications and non-telecommunications equipment. As per the telco’s latest financial audit, all the real estate properties of BSNL are valued at around Rs 69.7 crore! State Communications Minister Debusingh Chouhan said that they were not thinking of wasting this huge amount of state-owned property.

BSNL emerges as EBITDA positive

It is pertinent to mention that as per the data released on 31st December (2021), the state-owned BSNL has 9.90 per cent market share of mobile service users across the country. At the same time, in the case of wireless broadband service users, the company has a market share of 15.40 percent. Also, as of October 2019, the government announced a revival package for BSNL, which the company has used to improve its position. In this context, Chouhan said that the government company BSNL has now become EBITDA positive, which is very good news for the fans in every respect.

Also, Chouhan was asked about the National Digital Communications Policy in Parliament, to which he replied that the government had adopted this policy in 2016 to fill all the gaps in information and communication. Through this, they are committed to provide a comprehensive, flexible, secure, accessible and affordable digital communication service to common citizens and all enterprises.