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Birla AT&T foreign equity hike cleared

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, June 20

THE Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Tuesday approved foreign equity participation of Rs. 1,604.75 crores in the increased paid-up capital of Rs. 3,275 crores in Birla AT&T, which has the licence to provide cellular services in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The CCEA, however, did not take up the issue of allowing Indian news agencies to uplink for purposes of gathering news and its distribution as the administrative Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, was not present at the meeting.

The Minister for Information Technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, said that the Group of Ministers (GoM) at its last meeting had decided that the Government should look at the possibility of allowing all Indian agencies to uplink, instead of providing clearan ce on a case-to-case basis.

The Birla AT&T venture had a paid-up capital of Rs. 525 crores in 1995, with the US-based AT&T holding equity component amounting to Rs. 257.25 crores. The paid-up capital was increased to Rs. 1,200 crores in 1996 and AT&T was allowed to have an equity o f Rs. 588 crores, the Government spokesperson said.

Now, the paid-up capital of the venture has again been enhanced to a level of Rs. 3,275 crores and, therefore, foreign equity participation has been approved up to an amount of Rs. 1,604.75 crores, which is in line with the policy that foreign equity in a telecom company cannot exceed 49 per cent.