KOCHI: The Indian central public sector undertaking, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), is likely to announce a second Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) aimed at reducing the number of employees by 35 per cent.

BSNL will write to the Ministry of Telecom seeking permission for a final nod to go ahead with this scheme. The move is to seek Rs 15,000 crore from the central government to lay off 18,000 to 19,000 employees to strengthen the company's balance sheet. After receiving the green signal from the Department of Telecom, the project will be presented to the cabinet for final approval.

It is estimated that, through VRS, the annual expenditure on salaries can be reduced from Rs 7,500 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. Efforts are being made to significantly reduce costs ahead of the rollout of fourth-generation telecom services across the country.

BSNL’s revenue rose to Rs 21,302 crore in the last financial year showing little improvement. BSNL currently has 55,000 employees in the non-executive and executive categories. The central government approved a package of Rs 69,000 crore in 2019 for reviving BSNL and MTNL. 93,000 employees opted for retirement under the VRS scheme introduced as part of this.