BSNL Employees Opting VRS To Retire As Lakhpati; Payout Packages Up To Rs 90 Lakh To Be Handed: Report

Government-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is going to give lump sum packages to its employees who have opted to take early retirement under the recently announced Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS), reported India Today.

Nearly 63 per cent or one lakh BSNL employees are eligible for the recently announced ‘BSNL Voluntary Retirement Scheme - 2019’. BSNL’s total staff strength is about 1.50 lakh. The effective date of voluntary retirement under the present scheme is 31 January, 2020.

Reports also show that at least 80,000 employees aged above 50 years have already decided to retire under the scheme within two weeks of the rollout. More employees are expected to take the offer in coming days. The scheme will remain open till 3 December.

The large number of employees opting for the scheme can be linked with the expected huge payout package. Every employee availing the offer might get a lump sum salary for the remaining months in the service.

The ones aged 55 years are going to get a package payment of 60 months of their present salary, as the current retirement age for BSNL employees is 60 years.

This way all the BSNL employees going with the scheme are going to retire as lakhpati. As per a Business Today report, the salary of experienced employees at BSNL is about Rs 75,000 per month.

If this is the case, the 50-year-old employees opting for the VRS scheme are expected to bag an approximate retirement package of Rs 90 lakh, as they will be eligible for the renumeration of their salary for 120 months (10 years) left in service.

The employees retiring under the VRS scheme will also be eligible to avail other benefits such as gratuity, earned leave, and monthly pension after they cross 60 years of age.

A BSNL source told that the salary of the employees retiring with the scheme is going to be protected and they will receive full salary as per the cabinet's decision.

BSNL is looking to achieve a saving of about Rs 7,000 crore in wage bill, if 70,000-80,000 personnel opt for the scheme.

In 2018-19, the company's revenue was around Rs 19,308 crores with employee benefits expense accounting for 75 per cent of the firm's total revenue at Rs 14,488 crore. This implies the per employee cost is about Rs 9.6 lakhs.

The employee benefits expense of BSNL in 2016-17 was about Rs.15,715 crore. The employee strength of BSNL in that year was 1,96,448. This implied per employee cost is about Rs 8 lakhs.