The Union Cabinet on Wednesday is learnt to have approved hiving off mobile towers assets of BSNL into a separate subsidiary as well as compensating it and MTNL for the surrendered CDMA spectrum. The move is likely to help turn fortunes of both the loss making telecom PSUs.
BSNL has the second largest mobile tower infrastructure with about 65,000 towers. The forming of new subsidiary, which is expected to be valued at Rs 20,000 crore, will make sharing of towers with other operators easier.
“Demerger of the tower business will help unlock the value. The demerged entity can improve tower tenancies by making available the towers to all private sectors. This will also lead to better usage of national assets,” Hemant Joshi, Partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP explained.
According to sources, Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, also approved to extend financial support of Rs 169.16 crore to BSNL and Rs 458.04 crore to MTNL on surrender of 800 MHz CDMA spectrum. BSNL had surrendered spectrum for 4 circles and MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai. The surrendered spectrum was also put on sale in the auctions held in March this year.
Besides, the Cabinet also approved release of wages directly to the accounts of the workers engaged under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
