NEW DELHI, FEB 9: The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) today said it would not be able to buy back five per cent of its shares during 1998-99 due to lack of time and would stretch the process on to the next financial year.The corporation, which had earmarked Rs 528 crore for buying back of shares including the government equity, is still awaiting the clarifications from government on various taxation provisions, MTNL chairman and managing director S Rajagopalan said here."After the necessary clearances and clarifications we will still require a statutory 66 days to complete the buyback procedure and hence it will not be possible to do it in the current financial year," he said.After the lukewarm response to the domestic disinvestment of Gas Authority of India (GAIL) earlier this month, the delay in buyback of MTNL shares would lead to a considerable shortfall in the government's disinvestment mobilisation.MTNL board had approved buyback of up to 30 million shares. Government has 56.25 per centequity in the telephone monolith which has an equity base of Rs 630 crore.MTNL is one of the six public sector corporations which was allowed buyback or cross-holding of equity by the cabinet last month as part of the efforts to meet the disinvestment target of Rs 5,000 crore during the current financial year.MTNL had sought clarifications from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on the taxation provisions and other issues relating to buy back.Although preliminary work on the buyback plan has started, the process is likely to be completed only in the next fiscal as the minimum time period required was not available in the current fiscal, Rajagopalan said.Even for convening the extra ordinary general meeting (EGM), the corporation would require a notice period of 21 days, he said.The MTNL chief said buyback would be decided by the bankers at a later stage.The core group had earlier suggested a price of Rs 176 per share. Presently, theMTNL share is traded at about Rs 155 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).So far, the government has mopped up only about Rs 434 crore through disinvestment in Container Corporation (CONCOR) and Gas Authority (GAIL) shares.
