At present 80% of the equipment
utilised for expanding telecom
networks is imported at a cost of
around Rs 50000 crores every
year.
In 2010, when the 3G spectrum
auction had taken place, BSNL
secured spectrum in 20 of its 22
circles and the BSNL had to pay
Rs. 10,187 crore to the Indian
Government. The private players—
Bharti Airtel, Anil Ambani’s Reliance
Communications, Aircel, Idea,
Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and
S-Tel were also part of the auction.
In total, the Indian government
managed to raise Rs. 67,718.95
crore from the auction, with Rs.
50,968.37 crore from private
telecom operators, and rest from
the state-owned BSNL and MTNL.
Though power equations
changed in the Centre in 2014, the
policy towards the public telecom
sector has not changed. Both the
Congress-led UPA and BJP-led
NDA have been trying to dismantle
the BSNL.
Again in March 2015, another
auction for 3G spectrum had been
held. Through the bid, the
government had fetched Rs.
1,09,874 crore. In the auction, Idea
Cellular, Reliance Telecom,
Vodafone and Bharti Airtel had
defended their existing spectrum
holdings. But, Tata Teleservices,
Uninor (Telewings), Aircel and
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio-
which offers only 4G services- had
secured additional spectrum.
The five-day-long auction for
the 4G spectrum was in October
2016 and the current government
made Rs. 65,789 crore. Only about
11% of the expected auction of
spectrum worth Rs. 5.6 lakh crore
had been sold. Airtel secured
spectrum worth Rs. 14,244 crore,
Reliance Jio got it for Rs. 13,672
crore, and Idea for Rs. 12,798
crore, among other private
operators.
April, May - 2019
As the Indian telecom industry
had stepped into 4G spectrum era,
except the public sector BSNL and
MTNL, all the services providers
were allocated spectrum. When
Indian telecom industry is all set to
start 5G services, which is expected
during the second half of 2019,
BSNL is still waiting for 4G spectrum
allocation. The government’s stand
of not allocating 4G spectrum to
BSNNL is clearly to help private
operators.
Now, NITI Aayog, the think tank
of the government, is saying that
the BSNL does not need a 4G
spectrum because all the private
operators have it already. They are
also arguing that even if it gets 4G
spectrum, it won’t be able to make
profits.
The spuriousness of this
argument can be seen in the fact
that after the government was
compelled to allow the BSNL to
procure equipment it started
making profits. Since 2012 the
procurement of equipment has
started and the management and
employees have worked together
for the upliftment of BSNL. As a
result, BSNL recorded operational
profit of Rs 672 crores for the year
2014-15 and Rs 3854 crores for
the year 2015-16. Its loss of Rs
8234 crore in 2014-15 was reduced
to Rs 4859 crore in 2015-16 and
to Rs 4793 crores in 2016-17.
BSNL Chairman has made another
spurious argument that ”Salary
expenses which constitute nearly
65% of the revenue, are dragging
us down. If we had employees in a
ratio similar to private players, we
would be a dividend-paying
company”, and placated voluntary
retirement scheme as a solution to
the woes of BSNL that were created
by the government itself.
In 2000, a large number of
government workforce under DoT
were shifted to the then newly-
formed corporate entity BSNL with
employees entitled to government
pension scheme and other
benefits. Now it wants shed this
responsibility
towards
the
employees by retrenching them
and denying them the benefits they
are entitled to. It has already
started implementing this in the
name of controlling expenses, and
has frozen on various services
availed by employees, including
Leave Travel Concession (LTC)
and medical facilities.
The NITI Ayog is proposing
asset monetisation which only
means out right selling away the
landed assets that belonged to
BSNL and the income thus
generated would be transferred to
funds of the government. Its refusal
to consider the proposals by thee
unions such as tower sharing,
renting the infrastructure, training
centres etc. will clearly show that
the real intentions of the
government is to finish the BSNL
financially in order to sell it to the
foreign telecom giants.
This is not wild charge. We are
witnessing this drama for the last
two decades. One recent example
is that the government proposed to
auction the gas and oil producing
fields belonged to ONGC which
deprives ONGC most of its
production
capacity.
The
government has withdrawn this
proposal when faced with stiff
resistance both from workers and
employees as well as top level
officers.
The government released
some crores of money to pay the
BSNL employees and gave
presidential permission to raise
bank loans. And immediately
announced VRS and monetisation
of assets. One has to see through
this game plan and be prepared to
resist the privatisation of BSNL –
which is nothing but selling away
to foreign telecom giants – while
struggling to protect their jobs and
job security.
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