Government has no proposal to disinvest stake in BSNL and MTNL as part of their revival strategy.

To a question whether the government has any proposal to disinvest BSNL and MTNL as part of their revival strategy, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad replied in the negative in a written reply in the Lok Sabha and said every attempt with effective monitoring is being undertaken to revive the two companies. They will be made competitive he said.

"The results are positive. There is no proposal to disinvest them as part of revival plan," Prasad said.

The minister said the government has provided financial support of Rs 169.16 crore to BSNL and Rs 458.04 crore to MTNL for surrender of spectrum in the 800 MHz band.

Prasad said Rs 7,795.99 crore have been allocated and authorised by BSNL in 2015-16 for expansion of communication network capacity in various telecom services. This is a drop in the ocean compared to the losses the two telcos incurred in the fiscal year to March 2015.

In August, the government had approved a plan to spin off BSNL's telecom towers in a bid to shore up its finances.