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Vendors
on the warpath against BSNL
Neeraja
Kumar in New Delhi
Telecom equipment vendors on the mat after Union minister
of communications Pramod Mahajan directed Bharat Sanchar Nigam
Limited (BSNL) to re-negotiate the turnkey rates for its ambitious
GSM tenders, are now exploring options of a legal recourse
in case the tenders go for rebidding.
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Budget fit!
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| Even as Mr Mahajan wants rebidding on
the grounds that it is 35 per cent over the Rs 2,000 crore
budget for the project, vendors ask how the budgeting
was done. They claim that BSNL added substantially to
the scope of the project after the budgeting exercise
was carried out. They allege that the exercise did factor
in stiff payment terms and foreign currency fluctuations
consider that most of the equipment is imported. |
Amid thinly veiled charges that vested interests
who benefit from a delay in BSNL’s entry into GSM are crying
wolf over alleged cartelization, the vendors say that “the
delay caused due to litigations might cost BSNL more than
what the project would.”
Senior BSNL officials say it is already losing Rs 4 crore
per day due to the delay. Re-bidding will put throw it off
track by another six to nine months resulting in a loss of
up to Rs 1080 crore — which is more than what the Minister
hopes to save by re-bidding for the project.
“This is only taking into account the first phase when BSNL
was supposed to instal 15 lakh lines. The loss will go up
substantially if the second phase figures of 40 lakh lines
are taken into account,” the BSNL officials add.
Meanwhile, equipment vendors say they have already invested
a considerable amount in the project. “Even the performance
bank guarantees (PBGs) have been accepted by the BSNL. We
taking legal opinion on what recourse we can take if the Government
now tries to go for a rebid,” according to a senior official
of a multinational telecom giant, speaking on conditions on
anonymity.
However, Ericsson’s (one of the short-listed vendors) managing
director Ian Campbell was confident that BSNL would go ahead
with the project. “The APO is already done and based on that
the project has started in full swing and is almost ready
for roll-out.”
The other vendors however argue that BSNL has got a decent
deal after negotiation which they claim is 40 per cent lower
compared to prevailing international prices. This was confirmed
by a top official with a leading cellular operator that is
rolling out its services across the country: “Comparing on
a turn-key basis, while our company is buying equipment at
Rs 10,000 per line, BSNL has got the same at approximately
Rs 6,000 per line.”
However, as a senior official with another vendor says: “For
North and South zones, the rate at which BSNL is getting the
equipment is Rs 6000 per line, as against the Rs 6,600 and
Rs 6,400 per line figures being talked about by the government.
Also for the West, the final
price after negotiations is Rs 5,900 as against the pre-negotiated
price of Rs 6,100 per line,” he added.
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