BSNL targets 20% market share by year end State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), which has been losing subscribers continuously, is targeting a 20% mobile subscriber market share in the country by year end, the company’s chairman and managing director (CMD) PK Purwar told FE in an interaction on Monday. The company is looking to achieve the same by ramping its 4G rollout using indigenous stack during the year, focusing on improving the quality of services with 100% network uptime, as well as through marketing initiatives to increase subscribers count. Purwar’s comments assume significance in the sense that BSNL has an 8.08% mobile subscriber market share as on October 31, 2023, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). In 22 consecutive months as of October end, BSNL lost 21.4 million subscribers, taking its subscribers count to 92.87 million. In comparison, Jio and Airtel have market share of 39.3% and 32.85%, respectively. Vodafone Idea has a market share of 19.6% in the mobile subscribers, according to Trai data. Talking about the progress on 4G rollouts, Purwar said, “2024 will be a crucial year for us to expand our 4G services on 100,000 BTS (base transceiver stations). We have installed nearly 2,000 BTS in Punjab and Haryana. Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Uttarakhand, and Himachal are also seeing new equipments getting installed”. “Starting 2025, we will also launch our 5G services as the 4G network we are installing is upgradable,” Purwar added. Speaking at an event by BSNL on Monday, communications and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said, “by June and July this year, BSNL 4G services will be expanded to 50,000 towers and that will improve the company’s image significantly”. The minister said, there has been a strong confidence in the installed indigenous 4G equipments by BSNL and by Diwali this year, the company will significantly rollout its 4G services. Lately, BSNL has also been focusing on replacing its older equipments in various circles including Delhi and Mumbai, which are being served by MTNL, to improve the bandwidth and network quality. “There were many problems earlier related to having older equipments, not having a competitive product for 4G, fiber-to-the-home (FTTH), and challenges in maintenance of power plants, batteries, fiber cables, etc. Now, those challenges are being resolved quickly and we have a competitive product in the market,” Purwar said. While Purwar did not share details about the merger plan of BSNL and MTNL, he said, “all the decisions today are being taken keeping in view both the companies. We think of them as single network with two companies. If BSNL needs to be successful, then it is important to improve services in Delhi and Mumbai, which are being run by MTNL. The focus is to improve the network and increase the network uptime to 99% or 100%”. In the July-September quarter, BSNL’s net loss rose to Rs 1,482 crore, from Rs 1,470 crore in the April-June quarter, standalone financial statements of the company showed. The company’s revenue from operations fell 5.1% quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q) to Rs 4,071 crore during the quarter. BSNL last reported net profit in FY09 and has reported a net loss of nearly Rs 1.1 trillion in the last 14 years since. In FY23, BSNL’s net loss widened to Rs 8,162 crore from Rs 6,982 crore in FY22. This, despite a 14% revenue growth to Rs 19,130 crore in FY23. The government expects the company to turn net profitable by 2026-27.
Also read: Petrol and Diesel Rate Today, 11 February: Fuel prices steady; Check rates in Delhi, Mumbai, other cities
In its consultation paper, Sebi has suggested that trustees of mutual funds should focus on market abuse by AMC, its employees and mis-selling by the AMC to increase the asset base.
Also, trustees should be responsible for fairness of fees and expenses charged by the AMC, compare its performance with peers and ensure that AMC’s sponsor is not getting any undue advantage.
In addition to the core areas, the trustees should be responsible for periodically reviewing the steps taken by AMCs for the folios which do not contain all KYC attributes with bank details.
Further, Sebi has suggested that trustees and their resource persons should independently evaluate the extent of compliance by AMC and not merely rely on AMC’s assurances.
To facilitate trustees’ supervision, AMCs should provide them with analytical information.
Presently, the trustees primarily rely on the AMCs for ensuring compliance with the applicable rules.
Under the rules, trustees hold the property of the mutual fund in trust for the benefit of the unitholders. The trustees appoint an AMC to float schemes for the mutual fund and manage the funds mobilised under various schemes, in accordance with the investment objectives.
“In view of the increasing scale and reach of the mutual fund industry, trustees’ role in respect of unitholders’ protection assumes even greater significance,” Sebi said on Friday.
Also read: Adani shares continue fall amid MSCI review
Over the past decade there has been a five-fold increase in the size of the mutual fund industry. The assets under management (AUM) has surged from Rs 7.93 lakh crore in November 2012 to Rs 39.89 lakh crore in December 2022.
To ensure that trustees devote time and attention to their core responsibilities, Sebi has suggested that for fulfilling other responsibilities, trustees may rely on professional firms such as audit firms, legal firms, merchant bankers for carrying out due diligence on their behalf.
The Sebi also listed some duties trustees can delegate to AMCs. This include ensuring that all systems are in place prior to the launch of any scheme by the AMC, and calculating any income in the mutual fund due to the fund and any income received in the mutual fund for unitholders.
The regulator has proposed to provide a one year time to existing trustees with board of trustee structure to convert into a trustee company, from governance point of view.
Presently, two structures for trustees are permitted — corporate and board of trustees structure. Moreover, there are a few mutual funds which have the board of trustees structure while the trustees of all other mutual funds have adopted the structure of a trustee company.
Considering the enhanced role of trustees over the period of time, Sebi has suggested to increase the minimum number of trustees to adequately perform their functions. Presently, the minimum number of trustees prescribed is four.
Also, it has been proposed that the chairperson of the trustee company should be an independent director.
Sebi has suggested that apart from the meeting of the audit committee of AMCs and trustees (which mostly comprises of independent directors), the board of AMCs and the board of trustees may be mandated to meet at least once a year to discuss the issues concerning the mutual funds.
The regulator proposed that the existing MF Regulations on AMC and its obligations may be amended to include additional clauses with respect to the obligations of the board of AMC.
The proposed amendment may include a clause which casts an obligation on the board of AMC to ensure that all the activities of the asset management company are in accordance with the provisions of these regulations.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has sought comments from public till February 24 on these proposals.