As per report a week after BSNL launched its Voluntary Retirement Scheme, over 70,000 employees have opted for the scheme. Meanwhile P K Purwar, Chairman and MD of BSNL told that the response for the VRS scheme has been strong across the board and the number of employees opting for VRS at 75,000.
Earlier on october 23, Telecom minister ravi shankar Prasad announced a VRS scheme, where if any officer who is over 53.5 years of age opts for VRS, he will be given 125% remuneration of the salary, pension and gratuity till the age of 60. Hence this was done in a bid to bring down costs and keep the debt-ridden telecom player afloat. Furthermore the minister said during the announcement that while human resources cost is just 5% in other telecom companies, it is over 70% in BSNL and MTNL. At BSNL, nearly one lakh people are eligible for VRS.
Moreover with thousands of employees opting for the scheme, the telecom department has told BSNL to ensure business continuity and smooth operations, especially at telephone exchanges in rural areas. Perhaps ravi Shankar prasad said that while the merger will take time, MTNL will be a subsidiary of BSNL till all required approvals and procedures for the merger are completed and BSNL has a national presence, while MTNL operates in maharashtra and Delhi.
