Tata Communications (TCL) earlier know as VSNL, asserted that it had no intention of holding on to 770 acres of surplus land that came under its fold as a part of the privatization of former long-distance monopoly VSNL, because the delay in taking a decision was hurting the company, as it was unable to raise equity. The statement came in the wake of telecom ministry ordering the department of telecommunications to find out why it was taking so long to decide what to do with the land.
Recently, the telecom ministry called for the telecom secretary to constitute a high-level committee to examine the issue and come up with recommendations to secure interest of the government and the investors within this month. In a view, the Tatas were deliberately delaying a final decision on the fate of the land, spread over five locations in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Pune. Adding to this, in May 2005, opinion of former attorney general Milon Banerjee that claims right from the beginning, the strategic partner was not interested in hiving off/demerger of the surplus land. But TCL quoted that such an interpretation was far from the truth.
Earlier VSNL was acquired by a subsidiary of Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, in 2002 when it was privatized by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led NDA government. TCL does not benefit from the surplus land and has no interest in retaining it or delaying its separation from the company. As a matter of fact, the company has been seeking an expedited resolution to this issue which limits its options in raising non-debt funding. The government is in the process of evaluating various legal and financial alternatives to decide on the demerger process, company officials quoted.
No comments:
Post a Comment