BSNL office in Delhi.
Credit: iStock Photo
India's state-owned telecommunication service BSNL is planning to shrink its workforce by 35 per cent. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to seek approval from the Finance Ministry for a second Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) at BSNL, as per a report by The Economic Times.
BSNL has asked for Rs 15,000 crore from the Finance Ministry in order to carry out the VRS rollout among its employees.
The publication spoke to an official in the know who said, "BSNL's board has sent a proposal to DoT to reduce the telco's employee base by 18,000-to-19,000 via a VRS to make its balance sheet healthy."
BSNL reportedly spent 38 per cent of its revenue to pay salaries, which comes to around Rs 7,500 crore. The PSU now plans to reduce this expenditure to around Rs 5,000 crore per year.
The VRS programme was approved by the BSNL board on Monday. However, another senior official told the publication that the VRS plan is being discussed internally, but there is no concrete plan on the matter yet.
Back in 2019, around 93,000 employees from BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) opted for a VRS package, the cost of which came from a government revival plan worth Rs 69,000 crore.
Similar packages were provided by the central government in 2022 and 2023 as well.
The loss-making PSU still offers generation-old 3G service and is on the path of rolling out 4G network across the country.
Union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scinida recently said that BSNL has been posting operational profit since 2021 and revenues have increased by about 12 per cent ot Rs 21,000 crore while the expenditure has reduced by 2 per cent.
He said that the company has been little late in the launch of 4G service because of the choice it made to roll out a network based on indigenously developed technology.
"We have rolled out on this date close to 62,000 towers of Indian technology. India is the only fifth country in the world to have its own 4G hardware and its own 4G stack. Now, by the time I roll out 100,000 towers, which will be by May or June of 2025, I will also start switching some of my towers from 4G technology to 5G technology for BSNL," Scindia said.
(With PTI inputs)