NEW DELHI: The proposed merger of the ailing PSU Indian Telephone Industries with the state-run telecom operator BSNL is learnt to have reached the final stage of discussion.
"It (merger talks) has reached the final stage of discussion and can happen by this year-end," said a senior BSNL official.
BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal had recently told PTI that the proposed merger issue was discussed at the PSU's board meeting on August 27.
However, the BSNL Employees Union is opposing the proposed merger saying it would put financial burden on the state-run telecom operator. But, the joint forum of the employees union of six units of ITI are in favour of the merger.
ITI, a telecom equipment manufacturing company, has units at Palakkad, Bangalore, Srinagar, Naini, Rae Bareli and Mankapur. It had posted an accumulated loss of Rs 2,000 crore in 2007-08.
For long ITI had been enjoying the preferred vendor status from BSNL under a reserved category.
Whenever, BSNL went for an open tender, ITI along with its French partner Alcatel got a certain percentage of the tender in value and volume term without bidding. This helped the company survive.
