Does a merger of MTNL with BSNL make sense?
The merger issue is the prerogative of the owner. If the government decides to merge the two then they will do it. There are some issues. If you compare BSNL and our salary and wage bill then you will see a huge difference. With 50,000 employees our bill will be much higher that them because their pension is paid by the government. Our employees are agitating that their pension should also be borne by the government. If that is done, then my profitability immediately increases. The huge pension is a permanent liability for the company. At the time of creation, the employees were offered a higher scale of pay to join MTNL. With the sixth pay commission, that issue has been resolved but the pension issue remains unresolved for nine years now. What about a demerger of the tower business, real estate business? We don’t see the advantage of a demerger of the towers. The asset is lying in the company. Private operators have an interest in demerging their towers businesses as they can dilute
