BSNL, MTNL user: Here's why your services might be suffering

Imagine how difficult it would be for a company to survive after a huge chunk of its staff decides to leave. Well, in the case of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited — the state-run telecom behemoths — the percentage is around 55 and 75 after the introduction of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

So, if your landline connection is going dead, or you are unable to browse the internet at a high speed, despite paying for 4G, you are not the only one!

Here's how things went wrong with BSNL and MTNL after the introduction of voluntary retirement scheme.

The voluntary retirement scheme was introduced to help companies get rid of the surplus staff. This came into action to help companies facing debt crisis or slowdown since the labour laws do not permit direct retrenchment of unionized employees.

But, VRS applies to only those employees who have been working for 10 years or more and are above the age of 40 years, which may vary from company to company.

So, if VRS was introduced to lay down the burden of surplus employees from the companies, how is it affecting their service now?

“Officials say the recent voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) has reduced the workforce and that is hampering the service quality,” points out Vinod Desai, an Ahmedabad-based retired bank official, who’s planning to shift to a private service provider from BSNL for a landline connection.

Geo Verghese, a businessman from the same city, has found the internet speed of the BSNL broadband connection “unsatisfactory”.

Well, if BSNL is a pan-Indian story of increasingly indifferent service, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), the other state-owned telco that operates only in Delhi and Mumbai, is no better.

As mentioned before, around 75 per cent of the MTNL staff took the VRS offer and left recently. And, it doesn’t help when a customer lands up at the almost-deserted MTNL offices, whether in Mumbai or Delhi.

The situation is quite contrasting in BSNL headquarters at downtown Janpath in New Delhi.

PK Purwar, chairman & managing director, BSNL, said on Saturday that the existing employees have responded well to the challenges. The numbers are big: BSNL and MTNL have shed 92,869 at one go through the VRS. While BSNL let go of 78,569, MTNL’s offer was taken by 14,300.

Of the total number of BSNL employees who took VRS, a majority — 55,000 — made up for non-executive staff. In the case of MTNL too, the non-executive category formed the chunk in taking VRS.

In case you don’t know, together they have around 123 million subscribers (mobile and landline) in the country out of a total telecom user base of over 1.2 billion. In landline, these two hold over 60 per cent of the market share.

Admitting that BSNL was overstaffed, a senior BSNL executive said the overall impact of the VRS on the company’s operations was minimal. In fact, both MTNL and BSNL executives claimed it was business as usual.

However, the state-level executives sounded more realistic.

In BSNL’s Gujarat circle, for instance, tenders are being floated across the circle units for roping in outsource partners following guidelines from the corporate office recently. Of the roughly 10,000 workforce in the state, around 6,468 opted for VRS, leaving the circle with staff strength of just 3,532.

Similarly, at BSNL offices in Hyderabad, officers managing the post-VRS situation have redeployed staff from back-end administrative work at customer service centres.

In Chennai, where almost 33 exchanges out of the total of over 200 in the city and its suburbs barely had...

BSNL filed details of 14 properties of Rs 20,160 cr for monetisation: CMD

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has submitted details of 14 properties worth Rs 20,160 crore to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) as part of the telecom corporations' ambitious asset monetisation plans, according to its chairman.

Meanwhile, a government source told PTI that the Ministry of Skill Development is looking for a land parcel and the Department of Telecom (DoT) has offered BSNL land in Ghaziabad to the ministry. The estimated value of that land is Rs 2,000 crore.

When contacted, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar said, "The corporation is making all out efforts to monetise its assets and has identified 14 assets worth over Rs 20,000 crore through the DIPAM route".

Purwar said these land parcels are spread across India in locations like Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram, Chennai, Ghaziabad and other places.

In October last year, the government had approved a Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and giving VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.

The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved a plan to combine Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) -- which provides services in Mumbai and New Delhi -- with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) that services the rest of the nation.

Over the last few weeks, both the companies have launched their VRS plans and thousands of employees of BSNL and MTNL have opted for voluntary retirement. The scheme will help reduce BSNL's wage bill by 50 per cent and MTNL's by 75 per cent.

The two firms will also monetise assets worth thousands of crores in the next three years.

MTNL has reported losses in nine of the past 10 years and BSNL too has been in the red since 2010.

BSNL has initiated discussions with the Central Board of Secondary Education for sale of specific land parcels. Moreover, the DoT has also sounded out the Ministry of Finance about BSNL's plans to issue sovereign guarantee bonds. These could be floated as early as February, once the requisite approvals come in.

Inter-ministerial group begins process for sale of BSNL's realty assets

The Centre has started the process for sale of Bharat Sanchar Nigam’s (BSNL’s) assets. It has set up of an inter-ministerial group that would shortlist and prioritise sale of real estate assets of the cash-strapped company.

BSNL is yet to pay salaries to its staff for November. “The group comprises officials from the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), department of telecom and BSNL,” an official in the know told Business Standard. The company has identified 40 land parcels worth about Rs 10,000 crore to be ...

BBNL pays Rs 770 cr to BSNL for clearing vendor dues in BharatNet Project

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 debt-ridden state-run telecom firm had requested BBNL to pay Rs 1,033 crore earlier this month to clear the dues of vendors engaged in BharatNet project.

Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) had allocated around 70 per cent of rural broadband network roll-out work to BSNL.

"BSNL had requested payment of Rs 1,033 crore out of which around Rs 770 crore has been cleared by BBNL," a government official told PTI.

BSNL had requested payment of Rs 1,033 crore from BBNL as an advance to clear the pending liabilities of UP East and MP Circles of Rs 716 crore along with telecom factory liabilities of Rs 40 crore earlier this month.

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry telecom committee chairman Sandeep Aggarwal said that payment being released by BSNL will help in reviving thousands of vendors who had closed down their operations due to long payment overdues of more than 12 months.

"Many vendors who were still operating had notices from their suppliers to take them to NCLT and their bankers to declare them NPA," Aggarwal said in a letter dated December 26, 2019 to BSNL CMD PK Purwar.

He said that most of the vendors will be getting payment for invoices raised in December and some for the invoice raised in March 2019.

"We request that all the dues of MSME companies be cleared within 45 days," Aggarwal said.

Settle contractual workers' unpaid dues in 5 weeks: Calcutta HC to BSNL

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court on Monday directed state-owned telecom major BSNL Ltd to settle unpaid wages of contractual workers within five weeks.

Moving the court on behalf of a trade union, advocate Arunabha Ghosh submitted that workers under contractors for BSNL have not received their wages since December last year.

Ghosh submitted before the court that as per law, it is the onus of the principal employer to ensure that a contractor engaged by it is paying the wages of workers.

He further said if a contractor fails to pay the workers' dues, it is the liability of the principal employer to settle the wages.

Opposing the prayer, the lawyer representing the telecom major submitted that it is not possible for the company to furnish the amount left unpaid by the contractors.

Justice Shekhar B Saraf, after hearing both the parties, directed BSNL to pay the wages due of the contractual workers within five weeks.

DoT asks BSNL to ensure continuity as VRS roll out may cut staff by half

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.

At present, various options are being discussed for the transition period.

A source in Department of Telecom (DoT) told PTI said the matter requires urgent focus, and meetings are on to find a solution to ensure there is no impact on day-to-day manning of exchanges and other operations, once the VRS plan concludes.

On Friday evening, barely four days after the scheme was rolled out, the number of BSNL employees opting for VRS had swelled to 57,000, and the figures when combined with those of state-owned MTNL had exceed 60,000.

In all, nearly one lakh BSNL employees are eligible for the VRS out of its total staff strength of about 1.50 lakh. BSNL's internal target for VRS is pegged at 77,000 employees, which essentially means that if the VRS reaches full target, the staff strength will come down by half. The effective date of voluntary retirement under the present scheme is January 31, 2020.

When contacted, BSNL Chairman and MD P K Purwar confirmed that discussions have been initiated on the issue and said the corporation is planning business re-engineering and business continuity.

"We have to work meticulously because we have now started taking the data, which SSA, which unit, how many people are taking VRS....We will still be left with about 80,000 people. So, the numbers are not less...but it will be almost half. The work culture will also have to change," Purwar said.

The DoT source said that even outsourcing certain operations will require time, including transition period of 2-3 months after finalisation of tender, and given that the VRS will come into effect from January, a solution will have to be arrived at soon.

Several options are on the discussion table, the source said one such solution being debated is whether some of the personnel opting for VRS can be roped in as consultants at a lower cost.

The other options include tendering or outsourcing some of the work or roping in retired officers of the telecom department who are already familiar with the tasks. BSNL will have to choose which option it wants to go with, the source said.

The 'BSNL Voluntary Retirement Scheme - 2019' that was rolled out last week, will remain open till December 3. BSNL is looking at savings of about Rs 7,000 crore in wage bill, if 70,000-80,000 personnel opt for the scheme.

According to the scheme all regular and permanent employees of BSNL including those on deputation to other organisations or posted outside the corporation on deputation basis, who attended the age of 50 years or above are eligible to seek voluntary retirement under the scheme.

The amount of ex-gratia for any eligible employee will be equal to 35 days salary for each completed year of service and 25 days salary for every year of service left until superannuation.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) too has rolled out a VRS for its employees. The scheme, based on Gujarat Model, will be open for employees till December 3, 2019.

The Union Cabinet last month had approved the plan to combine MTNL - which provides services in Mumbai and New Delhi - with BSNL that services the rest of the nation.

The rescue package approved by the government includes infusion of Rs 20,140 crore for purchase of 4G spectrum, Rs 3,674 crore for GST to be paid on spectrum allocation, companies raising Rs 15,000 crore in debt on the sovereign guarantee and government funding Rs 17,160 crore VRS and another Rs 12,768 crore towards retirement liability.

The two firms will also monetise assets worth Rs 37,500 crore in the next three years. MTNL has reported losses in nine of the past 10 years and BSNL too has been ringing in loss since 2010. The total debt on both the companies stood at Rs 40,000 crore, of which half of the liability is on MTNL alone.

BSNL's VRS open till Dec 3; telco hopes 100,000 staffers will go for scheme

Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has rolled out voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) for its employees. The company hopes that about 100,000 employees will avail of the package.

The scheme opened on November 4 and will continue till December 3. The total number of BSNL employee is 175,000.

All regular and permanent employees of BSNL, including those on deputation to other organisations or deputed elsewhere, are eligible if they are 50 years old or older.

The amount of ex-gratia for any eligible employee will be equal to 35 days’ salary for each completed year of service and 25 days’ salary for every year of service left until superannuation.

Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), too, has rolled out a VRS for its employees. The scheme, based on Gujarat model and it will also be open till December 3. In a notice to employees, MTNL said, “All regular and permanent employees of 50 years and above as on January 31, 2020”, are eligible to opt for the scheme.

The government last month had approved a Rs 69,000-crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL. The plan includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and giving VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.

Decision on revival package for cash-strapped BSNL pushed back

A meeting convened by PK Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, on the revival of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) on Thursday ended without any conclusion, mainly on the question of whether the revival is possible or not.

It is learnt that the group of secretaries has been asked to study that matter in four-five days. According to a source, “If the meeting of secretaries decides for revival, then method of funding like creating a special purpose vehicle will be discussed and decided.”

The meeting was held to find a solution to the financial woes of the beleaguered PSU, which is awaiting the central government's fund infusion to stay afloat amid cut throat competition in the telecom sector.

BSNL had sought relief from the government in the form of conversion of debt into sovereign guarantee, pay revision and subsequent voluntary retirement.

Distressed employees of BSNL write to PM Narendra Modi, call for revival

Distressed employees of cash-strapped Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revive the company and make it a strong telecom operator. In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the staff of the beleaguered company said, “We heard that the finance ministry is proposing the closure of BSNL, instead of its revival.”

“It is felt that those officers involved in the process may not get an opportunity to learn about the critical role played by BSNL in nation building and in implementing government schemes and projects,” general secretary of BSNL Union Sebastin. K said in the letter.

Stressing the role played by the company during critical situations, the employees have sought relief from the government. Sebastin said during the recent developments in Jammu & Kashmir, the government is fully dependent on BSNL landline and mobile for providing services to a few government functionaries and security forces in Kashmir valley, despite the company incurring huge losses.

No other operator is allowed to provide services due to security reasons. BSNL is providing telecom services in remote parts of the country and maintaining 17,000 to 18,000 exchanges, incurring Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000 crore losses every year. Otherwise, these villages will be cut off.

The aggrieved employees said, “A wrong notion has been created by the government, management and the media that the main reason for BSNL loss is its employee cost.”

The letter said, BSNL provides direct employment to several people and most of the operations and maintenance activities are done by its own employees, whereas other operators outsource majority of their works.

They added, the outsourcing agencies engage people but their cost is not reflected in the company accounts as wage bill. Also, BSNL provides landline services which require huge manpower.

BSNL clears June salary of all employees; accounts to be credited on Monday

State-owned BSNL Saturday cleared June salary of all its employees, while it awaits clearance of around Rs 14,000 crore in dues from the telecom department.

"BSNL has cleared salary payments of all employees for June from internal accruals of about Rs 2,000 crore," an official source, who did not wish to be named, told PTI.

The company has cleared around Rs 750 crore for salaries, paid interest of around Rs 800 crore on loans and rest of the funds have been approved for operational expenses like electricity bill payments, partial dues of vendors etc.

"A finance wing official has confirmed that they have received funds for June salary and it will be credited in the accounts of employees on Monday," All India Unions and Associations of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (AUAB) Convenor P Abhimanyu said.

According to the source, the company has sent demand of Rs 14,000 crore to the Department of Telecom in April but is yet to receive it.

The demands include payment for excess pension amount, dues for rolling out mobile network in naxal effected area, and interest it paid on BWA spectrum, which was returned to the government, among others.

The total debt on BSNL is around Rs 15,000 crore, which is lowest in the industry.

One of the main reasons for the company running in loss has been high expense ratio between wages and revenue on account of large number of employees that were transferred by the government to BSNL at the time of its formation.

According to official data, a total of 1,63,902 employees, including 46,597 executive and 1,17,305 non-executive, were working in BSNL as on March 31, 2019.

The employee cost for BSNL is 75.06 per cent while that of private telecom companies varies between 2 to 5 per cent of the total income.

The government has been promising to revive the PSUs - MTNL and MTNL - and the proposals in this regard are pending with the DoT.

BSNL employees' union to stage a three-day rally starting April 5

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) employees’ union will stage a three-day rally starting April 5, demanding implementation of the Third Pay Revision with 15 per cent fitment, among other things.

This comes at a time when talks of lay-offs (to the tune of 35,000 people) are doing the rounds, amid a revival plan for the telco. The Digital Communications Commission (DCC) is yet to take a final call on the potential lay-off, said people in the know. The Union will march from the BSNL office to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on all three days. Sources in the union said BSNL’s services would not be impacted during the rally.

In February, 100,000 BSNL employees had called for a three-day strike, which largely affected public banking networks and broadband connections in non-metro cities.

On Monday, the BSNL board met to discuss financial results, as well as issues such as employee settlement and revival plans, among others. A board member said, "BSNL employees are getting salaries and there are no overdues. All salaries have been cleared till March.” The company had failed to pay salaries to employees in February. At present, the DoT is in the process of placing the revival plan before the Union Cabinet. It has sought the Election Commission’s permission to do so given the upcoming elections.

BSNL will clear salaries of all employees for February by Friday: CMD

Public sector telecom firm BSNL will clear salaries of all employees for February month by Friday, its Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said Thursday.

"BSNL will pay salary of all employees by tomorrow. We are thankful to telecom minister Manoj Sinha for his timely intervention to ensure that salaries of employees are paid at the earliest," the BSNL CMD said.

He said that revenue receipt of BSNL is usually higher in March and internal accruals have started flowing in.

"We expect total accruals of Rs 2,700 crore in March of which Rs 850 crore will be used for salary disbursement," Shrivastava said.

He said that BSNL is the only player, apart from Reliance Jio, which is adding new subscribers that has lead to higher revenue accruals.

"Minister took lead and directly monitored situation to resolve the crisis. I am also thankful to BSNL employees who ensured that the services are running," Shrivastava said.

He said that DoT helped BSNL with Presidential Sanction to meet working capital of the company and a letter of comfort for the same was issued to the company on Wednesday.

"We will serve letter of comfort to bank tomorrow following which they will start processing amount of Rs 3,500 crore to working capital requirement of BSNL," Shrivastava said.

He said that with support of DoT there will be no delay in salary disbursement in coming months.

Telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL are facing troubles in clearing workers' salaries for February month.

An official had told PTI on Wednesday that the DOT had released pending dues of Rs 171 crore to cash-strapped MTNL for paying February salaries to employees.

BSNL has 1.76 lakh employees across India and MTNL has around 22,000. It is estimated that 16,000 MTNL employees and 50 per cent of BSNL employees will retire in the next 5-6 years.