The inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission (TC) on Saturday decided to offer a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) employees who are 50 years of age and above, to save costs.
“Government can save around ₹500 crore-₹600 crore in a year by giving VRS to some employees of MTNL. It can save up to ₹300 crore every year from its assets such as buildings and towers by renting them out, more deployment of CCTV cameras with local authorities,” a senior Government official privy to the meeting said.
The official said the government would spend around ₹2,000 crore for this purpose (VRS). MTNL has around 46,000 employees, 26,000 of whom will be retiring in the next 10 years. Therefore, the government thought of saving costs by giving the VRS option to 20 per cent of its employees who are above 50 years of age.
The proposal will go to the Cabinet for approval in the next few days, the official said.
Meanwhile, the TC has also decided to auction all the telecom spectrum in line with the reserve prices suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which can fetch the government around 5.36 lakh crore.
The panel also felt that from this year’s auctions (to be held in July), companies winning spectrum in higher frequency bands, above 1GHz (1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz) should make a 50 per cent upfront payment instead of 33 per cent under the earlier rules, and the rest in 10 years after two years of moratorium.
For spectrum purchased in the below 1GHz band (700 MHz, 800 MHz and 900 MHz), companies would require to pay 25 per cent as upfront payment and the rest over 10 years after two years of moratorium. There has been no change in the earlier practice of government, the official said.
However, all decisions taken on Saturday would first go to the Cabinet for approval and only then would a final decision be taken in another round of Telecom Commission meetings, the official added.