The employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) are gearing up for yet another protest against the delay in implementation of the revival package promised by the Central government, which includes allotment of 4G spectrum.
On Monday, the employees, under the aegis of the All Unions and Associations of BSNL, will be organising hunger strikes across major BSNL offices in the State as part of a countrywide protest. The Union Cabinet had, in September 2019, approved a ₹69,000-crore revival package for both BSNL and MTNL.
The promises in this package included the allotment of 4G spectrum, the issuing of sovereign guarantee for raising funds to the tune of ₹15,000 crore (₹8,500 crore for BSNL and ₹6,500 crore for MTNL) by way of issuing long-term bonds, monetisation of assets, and implementation of a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS).
Employees’ unions allege that out of these, only the VRS had been implemented, through which 78,569 BSNL employees left the company earlier this month.
But, no step had been taken to allot 4G spectrum or issuing the sovereign guarantee, despite four months elapsing after the Cabinet decision.
Cash crunch
Union leaders said that the recent Supreme Court judgement, ordering private telecom companies to pay thousands of crores of rupees in adjusted gross revenue (AGR), had caused uncertainties in the telecom sector, owing to which banks were also unwilling to extend the much-needed loans to BSNL.
Because of the delay in the allotment of 4G spectrum and also due to the non-availability of funds, BSNL’s 4G service was unlikely to be launched before the end of 2020. In these circumstances, BSNL was not able to improve revenue generation and was suffering from acute cash crunch.
The employees were not getting salary on time and the wages of the contract workers had not been paid for the past 10 months.
The deductions made from employees’ salaries, on account of GPF, bank loan EMI, society dues, and LIC premium had not been remitted by the BSNL management to the organisations concerned. As a result of this, the employees were unable to get GPF and society loans.
