MTNL wants govt to foot its pension bills

NEW DELHI, INDIA: State-run telecom player Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), which is concerned over falling revenues and profitability, has reportedly asked the government to pay pension to the company’s retired employees in a bid to cut down wage costs.

“We have written to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) saying that pension to our employees should be paid by the government, as in the case of BSNL. Both MTNL and BSNL are government-owned. If government is paying for BSNL, why not for MTNL?” a PTI report quoted Chairman and Managing Director R S P Sinha as saying on Sunday.

According to reports, MTNL's salaries and wages bill rose to Rs 2,200 crore in the current fiscal from 1,600 crore in the previous fiscal and this was primarily due to the pensions paid out. In FY09, 48 per cent of MTNL revenues were used to pay wages and salaries.

Though MTNL had trimmed its work force under VRS, the PSU is yet to benefit out of this since it has to ultimately incur the pension bills of such employees.