The finance ministry has firmed up a plan to raise ₹16,000 crore by selling off assets belonging to state-run telecom companies Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).
The proposal, already cleared by the National Land Monetization Corporation (NLMC) and the Department of Public Enterprises, is expected to get final approval from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Monetisation next week, officials said.
A group of ministers, led by Rajnath Singh, overseeing the revival plan of the two state-run companies, had given its nod to the proposal earlier this week, one of the officials said, adding that it had also approved waiver of fees and service charges from the Delhi Development Authority and Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority.
The development removed key bottlenecks in the sale of assets of the two companies.
The NLMC had been without a full-time chief executive which had slowed down the monetisation process. The government last week appointed Vikas Anand, a 2002 batch Uttarakhand Indian Administrative Services officer as full-time CEO of the body.
The proceeds from the sale will be used to strengthen the two companies, officials said.
MTNL and BSNL have more than 600 land parcels and buildings across India, including prime locations in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.
The properties identified for the first phase are MTNL’s Central Administration Building at CR Marg, Fort, Mumbai, office building in Connaught Place near the fire brigade office, Delhi, BSNL’s building in Santacruz and Dinrose Telephone Exchange building in Anna Salai, Chennai.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the launch of Asset Monetisation 2.0 in her budget speech, aiming to generate ₹10 lakh crore by monetising government-owned assets and reinvesting the proceeds into new infrastructure projects. The Centre has budgeted ₹47,000 crore through disinvestment and asset monetisation for 2025-26.
In November last year, MTNL defaulted on a payment of ₹5,726.29 crore, comprising a principal amount of ₹5,492 crore raised from various banks and interest of ₹234.28 crore, the company said in a regulatory filing at the time. It said its total financial debt stood at ₹32,097.28 crore, 40 times more than its consolidated annual income of ₹798 crore. From January 1, 2025 the core operational assets of MTNL such as telephone exchanges, power plant, batteries, various types of cables, software and hardware were merged with BSNL.
Shares of MTNL closed at ₹56.06 apiece on the BSE on Wednesday, up 17.67%, while the benchmark index closed 0.40% down.
