92,700 BSNL, MTNL employees opt for voluntary retirement

New Delhi: The voluntary retirement scheme of BSNL and MTNL on Tuesday closed with over 92,700 employees opting for it, according to senior officials of the public sector telecom companies.

Around 78,300 employees of BSNL and 14,378 of MTNL have opted for the scheme. "Approximately 78,300 employees have opted for the VRS as per data received from all the circles till the closing of the scheme. This is as per our target. We were expecting reduction of 82,000 headcount.

Besides VRS applicants, around 6,000 employees also retired," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar told PTI. The PSUs had set December 3 as last date for employees to opt for VRS.

MTNL Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Kumar said that the PSU too has exceeded the target set for VRS. "14,378 employees have opted for VRS against target of 13,650 employees. This will reduce our annual salary bill from Rs 2,272 crore to Rs 500 crore. Now we are left with 4,430 employees which is sufficient to run our business," Kumar said.