BSNL clears Rs 1,700 crore in dues to vendors; pays November salaries: CMD
Business | December 30, 2019 15:50 ISTThe corporation has also made salary payment to its employees for November, Purwar added.
The corporation has also made salary payment to its employees for November, Purwar added.
Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited, a state-run infrastructure firm that is setting up optical fibre network under BharatNet Project, has paid around Rs 770 crore in advance to BSNL to help the telecom firm clear dues of vendors involved in the project.
The state-owned telecom company is in loss since 2010 and has a debt of around Rs 20,000 crore.
The voluntary retirement scheme of BSNL and MTNL on Tuesday closed with over 92,700 employees opting for it, according to senior officials of the public sector telecom companies. Around 78,300 employees of BSNL and 14,378 of MTNL have opted for the scheme.
State-owned telecom firm BSNL has urged the telecom department to deploy an adequate number of senior ITS officers on key managerial position to ensure uninterrupted service to its customers. The company has rolled out a voluntary retirement scheme to reduce the number of employees and related expenses.
Coming out in strong opposition to the PSU disinvestment programme of the Modi government for companies like Air India, BSNL and BPCL, RSS affiliate, Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has slammed the move, saying that "strategic sales can be misused by corrupt officials to benefit special business houses".
BSNL's FY19 loss is estimated at over Rs 14,000 crore while its revenue is slated to decline Rs 19,308 crore. It is facing such an acute financial crisis that it has so far not paid employees' October salary but these are expected shortly.
The government on Thursday said it is not planning to reduce the retirement age of employees of state-owned telecom firms BSNL and MTNL to 50 years.
Over 94,000 employees of state-run BSNL and MTNL have applied for the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) with eight more days to go for its closure, according to a government official. According to sources, BSNL's 80,000 and MTNL's 14,000 employees have applied for the VRS.
The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed state-owned telecom major BSNL Ltd to settle unpaid wages of contractual workers within five weeks.
Over 92,000 employees of BSNL and MTNL have opted for the scheme so far, the source added.
BSNL employee unions have alleged that the management is forcing personnel to opt for a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) by creating a fear psychosis and have called for a pan-India hunger strike on November 25.
The number of port-ins stood at 53.64 lakh, against 28.27 lakh port outs in 2018-19, and thereafter the numbers cumulative up to October 2019 was 2.04 crore (port-ins) against 1.80 crore (port-outs).
The government on Wednesday said the merger of state-owned telecom companies BSNL and MTNL is likely to be completed in 18-24 months.
MTNL had initially expected the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) opted to touch 13,500, but the numbers have already reached 13,532 employees, with nearly two weeks left to go before the closing date for exercising the option
"We have written to DoT already asking for approval for the Rs 15,000 crore sovereign bonds. DoT is in the process of sending it to finance ministry for approval. We can raise all Rs 15,000 crore in one tranche. We expect to get the approval soon for the bonds to raise the funds", P K Purwar, CMD of BSNL
Anil Kumar (40), hailing from Palakkad and working with BSNL for the last 24 years, had not been paid his wages since the past six months, his relatives said.
At present, BSNL/MTNL has offered VRS package to their employees of the age of 50 years and above. BSNL has 220 such officers above GM-level.
In all, nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible for the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) out of its total strength of about 1.50 lakh. BSNL has pegged its internal target for VRS at 77,000 employees, and the effective date of voluntary retirement under the present scheme is January 31, 2020.
With the current VRS plan expected to cut BSNL's staff by almost half, the DoT has instructed the corporation to put in place measures to ensure business continuity and smooth transition, particularly for manning telephone exchanges in rural areas.
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