Telecom and network equipment manufacturers have sought immediate intervention by the Department of Telecom to instruct public sector telecom firms BSNL and MTNL to clear their outstanding dues of about ₹20,000 crore.

In a letter to Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash, industry body COAI, whose members include Nokia, Huawei, Ericsson, ZTE, Sterlite, Cisco and Qualcomm, among others, said, “Our members have been supporting various PSUs in delivering uninterrupted services, despite non-payment of their huge pending dues.”

“However, the situation has become highly critical now with total outstanding dues from these PSUs amounting to approx. ₹20,000 crore which has been pending for long,” Rajan Mathews, DG at COAI, said in the letter dated April 8. He said this was adding to critical financial woes of the telecom and network equipment companies, which are facing serious constraints in terms of cash flows due to slowing economic activities in the current situation, which in turn is impacting all payments including those for employees, interest, loan repayments and taxes.

It added that with the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 pandemic, the business continuity of these players and severe disruptive impact has been on the global supply chain, demand & supply elements.

“...this huge scale of delays and breach of contract commitments by Public Sector Units is highly detrimental to global business sentiment towards India,” it said, adding that at the time when the government is doing its utmost to attract foreign investment in the country, such issues give a negative signal to global investors on the risks of investing in India and to enter into contracts with government entities.