BSNL may acquire data access assets to recover dues

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is considering acquiring the assets of international long-distance telephony operator Data Access as one of the means to recover its dues amounting to about Rs 200 crore.

Executives of the PSU said BSNL had filed 27 cases against Data Access. BSNL would do everything to get its money back from Data Access, including accessing its assets, they said. "We have been tough as a company. No outbound traffic was given to Data Access," they added.

BSNL executives across the country would value the assets of Data Access, they said. The company owes BSNL Rs 200 crore, out of which, Rs 50 crore is the penal amount. The possibility of recovering the money is remote as Data Access is in the process of liquidation.

The BSNL-Data Access India deal has been the talking point in telecom circles for long but a Comptroller and Auditor General report has brought out the extent of negligence that caused BSNL to suffer losses of over Rs 200 crore.

The PSU failed to persuade Data Access India to cover all aspects with firm bank guarantees, allowed it to issue post-dated cheques that bounced and even when the failure of Data Access India to make payments was established, BSNL did not promptly disconnect the points of interconnect, the CAG report said.

In another development, BSNL has sought a minimum time of one year before any decision on offloading a small portion of its government stake could be considered.

The company's response comes in the wake of the finance ministry asking for its views on listing the company by selling some government shares to the public.

The company, after consulting its adviser ICICI Securities, said the IPO should be delayed by one year to ensure conformity of its accounts with the listing requirements.

The IPO route was one of the options that was to be considered for disinvestment.

However, BSNL has stated that if the government wants, it can go ahead with the disinvestment.

For the IPO, a whole lot of disclosure norms have to be cleared before going in for a sale of shares. BSNL also said in its response to the finance ministry that it did not need to raise fresh capital.

BSNL executives clarified that these were just BSNL's response to queries posed to them, and any final call on the mode of disinvestment have to be taken by the government.

Three months ago sources had said the government had written to BSNL along with a few other companies seeking the right time and procedure to seek an IPO, if required by the companies.