After uproar from the employees’ unions, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has likely put the second voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) proposal for BSNL on hold, officials said.Â
The telecom department will hold further consultations internally and is also expected to loop in Boston Consulting Group (BCG) before going ahead with the proposal. Notably, BCG is being paid Rs 132 crore, to draw a revival plan for BSNL and help it to compete with private players.
Last week, the BSNL management had approved the proposal for a second VRS scheme for BSNL. Upon implementation, the VRS scheme would have led to reduction in atleast 35% of its workforce of over 56,000 executives and non-executives employees. The same would have led to an outgo of Rs 15,000 crore for the government.
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The government’s intent behind bringing another VRS for BSNL is to reduce its employee costs in a bid to make the company profitable by FY27. BSNL incurred Rs 8,304 crore towards salaries, wages, allowances, and other benefits, which was 43% of its operating revenue in FY24.
BSNL officials said BCG is expected to submit its report within two months and post that a final decision will be taken.Â
When contacted, BCG refused to comment on the matter.
 “The flawed policies of the Government and the inefficiency of the BSNL management has contributed to BSNL’s present situation. However, instead of rectifying their mistakes, both the management and the government try to paint a picture that the employees strength of BSNL is the reason for the woes of the company,” said P Abhimanyu, general secretary of BSNL Employees Union in a letter to BSNL CMD.
MS Adasul, general secretary of Sanchar Nigam Executives Association said, “It does not mean that the officers in DoT continue to blame only the workforce of BSNL for any failures and it is required that officers in DoT also need to take responsibility for its decision.”
According to Adasul, the associations have taken up the matter with DoT and BSNL management, and it will continue to oppose such VRS proposals.
In 2020, when the first VRS was implemented in BSNL, the expectation was that around 30,000 to 35,000 employees would opt for it. However, around 80,000 employees took VRS.
In the April-September period, BSNL’s loss narrowed to Rs 2,785 crore from Rs 2,951 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations grew 10.4% year-on-year to Rs 9,235 crore. BSNL is targeting a 25% market share of the mobile subscriber base by the end of next year.