New Year Gift for MTNL employees as Cabinet nod for pension proposal

IN A major decision that will benefit around 43000 odd MTNL employees, Cabinet has given its nod for a pension proposal for such employees who have joined the public sector company from the department of telecom. The measure will have an additional burden of...

Rs 500 crore annually on the government. It will bring additional amount of about Rs 1,500 crore (including interest) in the books of MTNL as refund from government for the pension that the PSU paid to its employees. "The Union Cabinet approved that the erstwhile all categories of employees of the government absorbed in MTNL and who have opted for combined service may be given similar treatment in the matter of payment of pensionary benefits as available to the absorbed employees of BSNL," an official statement said.

Thus pension benefits will be available for their service term at DoT as well as their rest of the period at MTNL. Around 43,000 such employees had joined MTNL from the department of telecom and out them 16,000 have already retired and about 27,000 are still working in MTNL.

"The proposal entails an estimated recurring expenditure of approximately Rs 500 crore per annum besides adjustments in respect of Government pension liability previously discharged by MTNL," the statement added.

The pay scale at MTNL is relatively higher than that of BSNL and the government will bear the cost of pension similar to the amount paid to the BSNL. The difference in the pension amount will be borne by MTNL till the time of next pay revision when salaries at both the PSU will come at par. The next pay revision is expected to take place in 2017.