Unable to meet the Disinvestment target of Rs.40,000 crore this financial year, the government has started harassing the PSUs to somehow get the money from them. Disinvestment in coal could not take place due to the strong opposition from the workers. Now the disinvestment in IOC also could not take place.
In this situation, the government is asking all the cash rich PSUs to provide funds to the government either through disinvestment, ross-holding or special dividend.
This has been what happened to BSNL also. The government took away all the cash through Spectrum charges, notional loan, interest and so on. Now BSNL is not having funds to expand and even to pay the wages of the employees. The government wants all the PSUs to reach that position so that privatisation will be easy and the corporates and big business can maximise their profits.