BSNL Employees Wary of Tower Subsidiary, Fear Privatization

Yesterday, BSNL employees raised worries over plans to offload shares of BSNL Tower Company Limited (BTCL). The telco is seeking to privatise its operations by selling the shares to a 'strategic private partner'.

Privatisation Worries at BSNL

P Abhimanyu, the Gen Sec at BSNLEU, said that this move will cause the telco to "slip away" from state control. Notably, the government is planning to induce a strategic partner in BTCL.

The BSNL executive, citing the VSNL-Tata group partnership, said that the government already has disinvestment plans in place, and the recent actions may lead to the privatisation of BSNL despite its strategic nature.

Incidentally, BTCL represents 36,000 non-executives of the telco. Commenting further on the matter, Abhimanyu said that after 51% stake offload, BTCL will be a private entity. Questioning the government's motive of bringing operational efficiency to BSNL, he said that it will be reduced to a mere skeleton. He also cited this as a reason of delays in its IPO. Since the move garnered fierce resistance from employee unions, the telco chose privatization instead.

In a letter to chairman PK Purwar, dated 7th April, the union expressed its worry related to privatization of the telco. Notably, the union highlighted the decision to form a subsidiary tower company out of BSNL. This particular decision has caused unrest among the employees.

Furthermore, the employee body said that they were told that the tower entity would carry out the non-telecom activities. Also, the management had told them this move will reduce the license fees liability of the telco.

However, BSNLEU said that the arguments appeared deceptive to them.

A Private BTCL?

The Union Cabinet approved this proposal in 2017. The NDA-led government approved to sell the telco's tower assets to make a new subsidiary. According to the Cabinet, this will bring a focussed approach to the telco's operations. As of now, BSNL operates and maintains 68,000 mobile towers. Out of these, it leases out around 13,000 to multiple private operators. Also, it shares a further 7,000 sites with Reliance Jio.

Unions and Associations related representing BSNL employees still oppose creating a separate tower company. However, Center had decided long ago to induct a partner into the subsidiary.

BSNL will be better off with the move. It can use active and passive infrastructure sharing. The sharing will enable the telco to lease assets to different service providers, which will reduce capital and operational expenditure.