Lok Sabha Question No. 343 (STARRED), answered on 2020-03-18
Subject: Voluntary Retirement Scheme in BSNL
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: N.K. Premachandran

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 343 TO BE ANSWERED ON 18 TH  MARCH, 2020

## VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT SCHEME IN BSNL

## *343. SHRI N.K. PREMACHANDRAN:

|              | Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:                                                                                                                      |
|--------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| (a)          | the reasons for implementation of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) in BSNL;                                                                                                  |
| (b)          | the total number of employees who opted for VRS till date;                                                                                                                    |
| (c)          | the total number of employees retired from BSNL during the last three years;                                                                                                  |
| (d) from     | whether the Government proposes to fill up the vacancies due to the retirement of employees BSNL and if so, the details of the action taken by the Government in this regard; |
| (e) services | whether it has come to the notice of the Government that there is delay and deficiency in the provided by BSNL;                                                               |
| (f)          | if so, the corrective action taken by the Government in this regard;                                                                                                          |
| (g) number   | whether the Government has conducted any study regarding the impact of lack of sufficient of human resources due to mass voluntary retirement scheme;                         |
| (h)          | if so, the details thereof and the action taken thereon; and                                                                                                                  |
| (i)          | the action taken by the Government to fill up the vacancies in BSNL?                                                                                                          |
| ANSWER       | ANSWER                                                                                                                                                                        |
| (a) to (i)   | A statement is laid on the Table of the House.                                                                                                                                |

## STATEMENT TO BE LAID ON THE TABLE OF LOK SABHA IN RESPECT OF PARTS (a) to  (i)  OF  LOK  SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *343  FOR  18 TH MARCH,  2020    ON 'VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT SCHEME IN BSNL'.

(a) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been incurring losses since 2009-10. On the basis of  its  financial  performance  and  as  per  the  guidelines  issued  by  Department  of  Public  Enterprises (DPE), BSNL was classified as 'Incipient sick CPSE' in 2017. BSNL had a workforce of 1,55,296 employees as on 01.10.2019. The employee cost was 74% of the total revenue for the FY 2018-19 of BSNL. The Government approved the revival plan for BSNL on 23.10.2019 which inter-alia, includes reduction in Staff cost through Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for the employees of age of 50 years and above.

(b) The VRS was offered by BSNL to its employees on 04.11.2019. The scheme was closed on 03.12.2019.  78,569 employees of BSNL have opted for the VRS.

(c) Number of employees retired from BSNL during the last three years is as under:

| Period                                             |   Executive |   Non-Executive |   Total |
|----------------------------------------------------|-------------|-----------------|---------|
| 2016-17                                            |        2177 |           13138 |   15315 |
| 2017-18                                            |        2663 |           14211 |   16874 |
| 2018-19                                            |        3191 |           15474 |   18665 |
| 2019-20 (upto February 2020 other than VRS optees) |        3075 |           14815 |   17890 |

(d) BSNL has informed that as per provision of the VRS, the posts falling vacant due to VRS are abolished and there is no recruitment against the vacancies.

(e) & (f) BSNL has informed  that  it  meets  all  the  Quality  of  service  parameters/  benchmarks prescribed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in all its licensed service areas (LSAs) for  wireless  and  fixed  line  services  except  in  West  Bengal  formobile  services  at  present.  It  is continuously  monitoring  its  cellular  mobile  network  and  regularly  conducts  drive  tests/  inter  circle network audit/ surprise checks and optimizing its network to maintain quality of service parameters and  to  improve  network  performance.    Efforts  are  continuously  made  to  redress  the  customer grievance in minimum possible time.

(g) & (h) No Sir.

(i) does not arise in view of (d) above.

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