BSNL, MTNL employees taking VRS need to wait till April for dues

Employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL), who have opted for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), will have to wait for the next fiscal year (2020-21) to receive their dues.
 

This is because the Union Budget does not have provision for any expenditure towards the programme in the current fiscal year.
 

According to the Budget, payment worth Rs 37,268.42 crore due to voluntarily retirement of staff, capital infusion in BSNL and MTNL for 4G spectrum and grant for payment of GST have been budgeted for the next financial year.
 

Barely, Rs 528 crore has been provisioned in the current fiscal year by the government for payment towards ‘implementation of the VRS’.
 

On October 24, the Centre approved a package of nearly Rs 70,000 crore for BSNL and MTNL and also drew up a timeline to merge them.
 

Monetising real estate assets worth Rs 37,500 crore is part of the overall relief package that would be used to retire debt, upgrade networks and offer a VRS aimed at reducing the companies’ employee strength by half.
 

The relief package includes a sovereign bond issue worth Rs 15,000 crore, to be serviced by the two telcos. Also, BSNL and MTNL will be allotted 4G spectrum at an administered price, pegged at the 2016 auction value.
 

The two firms would be allotted 4G spectrum worth Rs 20,140 crore, Rs 29,937 crore for VRS, covering 50 per cent of their employees and Rs 3,674 crore for goods and services tax (GST) that will be levied on allocation of radio waves. 
 

The ex gratia component of VRS, to be offered to employees aged 50 years and above, will require Rs 17,169 crore budgetary support.
 

Besides BSNL and MTNL, the Union Budget provisioned for receipts worth Rs 1.33 trillion in 2020-21 from other communication services against Rs 58,989.64 crore in the Revised Estimates for 2019-20. 
 

Other communication services include payment of licence fee, spectrum user charges (SUC) and payment for spectrum auction, which is expected in June-July.
 

In the 2020 auctions, the department of telecommunications would also offer spectrum, the licences for which would expire in December 2021.   
 

The 4G spectrum to be allocated to BSNL and the railways has been excluded from these auctions.
 

The Supreme Court, on October 24, had ordered telecom companies to pay their licence fee and SUC dues within 90 days.

The apex court is yet to hear the ‘modification application’ filed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, allowing the companies to make staggered payments to the government. Therefore, the department of telecom has decided not to take any ‘coercive’ action if the companies delay payments.