Government plans to monetize land assets of BSNL, MTNL by FY25

The Department of Public Enterprises has decided to monetize land assets of debt-riddled Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) by the end of the current financial year.  “The government will float a tender to auction BSNL and MTNL’s land by the second half of February,” an official said. The auction takes place over three weeks. 

The monetisation of assets is likely to happen in tranches with the upcoming tranche expected to raise around Rs 300 crore. This came as repeat recommendations from the telecom ministry and the government is hopeful to close the deals by the end of March, the payment will only come in FY26.

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This will likely reduce the debt of both telecom PSUs through land monetization. Currently, the government is accepting bids for the sale of a few acres of land of these two PSUs, with the expectation of raising Rs 200-300 crore.  

The government has been trying to monetize non-core assets of public sector undertakings to let go of properties with little or no business activity. The push to monetize these unused assets also came as a fallout of the government’s little success in privatizing and disinvesting state-owned entities.  

The National Land Monetization Corp, a special purpose vehicle set up in 2022, was formed to monetize surplus land and public sector enterprises' assets. Though the National Land Monetization Corp prioritizes the sale of land parcels of BSNL and MTNL it is only a small portion of the huge surplus land of these PSUs that needs to be monetized. BSNL has assets spread across the country and MTNL has properties in Delhi and Mumbai, most of which are at prime locations. 

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