The government is preparing a Rs 9,000 crore asset monetisation plan for 2027-28 to help clear liabilities of state-owned telecom companies MTNL and BSNL, according to officials cited by Economic Times. The plan is part of a wider effort to unlock value from public-sector properties while addressing liabilities estimated at nearly Rs 50,000 crore across telecom and postal public sector undertakings.
The liabilities include sovereign guarantee bonds worth around Rs 30,000 crore. Officials said the government has sufficient financial cushion to meet these obligations and has also planned an annual asset monetisation pipeline of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore.
The proposed monetisation is being linked to a broader exercise to resolve ownership and title issues involving properties occupied by the Department of Posts, the Department of Telecommunications, BSNL and MTNL. According to the report, these entities had been occupying properties belonging to one another, with property records described by officials as highly disorganised.
Over the past two years, ownership of about 862 properties has been settled on the principle that each entity retains properties belonging to it. The Department of Telecommunications has issued a circular and a no-objection certificate, while BSNL and the Department of Posts are expected to issue no-objection certificates to each other shortly to resolve remaining title issues.
The government is also working on land-record mutations that have remained pending for decades across several public sector undertakings. Around 2,500-3,000 Department of Posts properties and nearly 4,000 properties belonging to BSNL and the Department of Telecommunications are still awaiting mutation, according to officials. At the same time, around 6,000-7,000 properties were cleared during the past 12-18 months.
Properties will be referred to the National Land Monetisation Corporation only after all 32 fields in its mandatory checklist have been completed, officials said. The process is intended to ensure that properties entering the monetisation pipeline have complete ownership and title documentation, rather than being transferred with unresolved records.
Around 40 properties are currently with the National Land Monetisation Corporation, while the Rs 9,000 crore monetisation pipeline for FY28 has been finalised, according to the report. The government has not disclosed a property-by-property list or the expected realisation from individual assets.
Officials also clarified that the government does not intend to sell capital assets to meet revenue expenditure. Salaries and other operational expenses will instead be met through revenue generated by the respective entities. MTNL’s rental income alone is reportedly sufficient to cover its employee costs.
The asset exercise comes as the government seeks to separate operational funding from the monetisation of surplus or underused public properties. The next steps will involve completing title documentation, land-record mutations and inter-departmental no-objection certificates before eligible properties are referred for monetisation.
