Govt favours BSNL-MTNL merger: Ahmad

The central government is in favour of merging telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, and the modalities are being worked out based on the suggestions submitted by an expert committee three months ago, minister of state for
communication and IT Shakeel Ahmad said today.

While the government is in favour of a merger, the exact modalities for effecting it would take some time because of the complexities involved, he added.

Ahmad also said that unions of both the entities were not opposed to the merger.

Asked when the government would take a decision, Ahmad said something concrete would take shape by early 2006-07 fiscal.

He said since MTNL was a listed entity and BSNL was wholly-owned by the government, there were lots of issues to be addressed before taking a call on the merger process.