Why Pay Revision with 15% Fitment cannot be
denied
CHQ WRITES TO MOSC REQUESTING IMPLEMENTATION OF
REVISED PAY SCALES WITH 15% FITMENT BENEFIT FOR
BSNL EXECUTIVES
No.AIBSNLOA/CHQ/2017/42
Dated: 15th November 2017
To
Shri Manoj Sinha,
Hon’ble Minister
of State for Communications,
Government of
India
New Delhi
Subject:
Implementation of revised pay
scales with 15% fitment benefit for BSNL
executives - reg.
Hon'ble Sir,
At the outset, we are thankful for your reported
inclination towards
implementing revised pay scales with 25% fitment
benefit in respect of
BSNL executives, even though BSNL does not fully
meet the affordability
condition stipulated by the 3rd PRC but BSNL is
already on revival path
and reporting operational profit for last few
years. In this regard, we
would like to draw your kind attention to the fact
that MTNL employees
were allowed pay revision as recommended by 2nd PRC
w.e.f. 1.1.2007 with
the highest 30% fitment benefit although the
affordability clause
existed then and MTNL was incurring loss for
consecutive years.
2.
We now learn that BSNL Board has approved a
proposal for pay revision
and has submitted to the administrative department
i.e., the Department
of Telecommunication.
3. It is needless to say that BSNL was
formed when Hon’ble Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee ji,
was the Prime Minister
of India, with a Mission to provide world class,
State-of-art
technology based telecom services on demand at
affordable prices and to
provide world class telecom infrastructure to
develop country’s economy.
At the time of Corporatisation, while approving
HRD and financial
issues arising out of the corporatisation, the
Union Cabinet had assured
that “Government will consider and provide a
package of measures so
that the viability of BSNL is not impaired because
of implementation of
any socially desirable uneconomic activity, such as
rural telephony,
undetaken by BSNL at the behest of Government”.
4. Since then,
BSNL has been discharging the social obligations of
the Government of
India by providing services in remote and rural
areas inspite of
incurring loss because of these services and its
presence in the Telecom
industry as a fully Government owned PSU, aiming
at providing world
class services at affordable tariff, has been
accepted by every stake
holder as a ‘moderating factor’ in controlling the
tariff in favour of
the customers.
5. When all private networks failed to provide
dependable service during natural calamities,
whether it was Hudhud
cyclone in Andhra Pradesh, Vardha cyclone in
Tamilnadu, Floods in
Tamilnadu and Uttarakhand, Earthquake in Jammu
& Kashmir, BSNL was
the only operator which proved its robustness.
6.1 In the
prestigious Digital India programme of Hon’ble
Prime Minister of India
too, BSNL is contributing in two three areas, like
National Optic Fibre
Network (NOFN), providing Wi-fi hotspots at
commercial places, Mobile
Wallet service under the Prime Minister Jan Dhan
Yojana and delivering
m-governance services like digital mandi, kisan
seva, Digital high
quality educational content among others. BSNL’s
contribution towards
BharatNet is also worth mentioning.
6.2 BSNL's role in ensuring
GST compliance also cannot be under estimated. BSNL
introduced GSP/ASP
service on PAN India basis to assist Small and
Medium Enterprises as
well as large business houses in transitioning to
GST by launching an
application software which will record invoices on
a PC / hand held
device or a smart phone along with all GST
compliances like preparation
of GST Returns, Assistance in generation of GST
challans for payment,
filing of GST Returns, sending back mismatch
invoices etc. BSNL also
played an effective role during demonetisation in
last November by
providing seamless network connectivity among banks
and financial
institutions.
7. Recently BSNL has signed (MoU) with Fiber Home
to
jointly start manufacturing telecom equipment and
optical fiber cable
in BSNL factories, underscoring another initiative
by Hon’ble Prime
Minister of India – ‘Make in India’.
8. BSNL revenue over the past
three years is increasing. The year 2013-14 saw an
increase in revenue
of 3.2%. The year 2014-15 saw an increase of 2.32%.
In the year 2015-16,
the increase in income is 14.92% whereas in the
same year the expenses
decreased marginally by 1.47%. The loss is
declining and BSNL is likely
to make profit in 2018.
9. While these are sufficient ground
justifying revision of pay scales of BSNL employees
with 15% fitment
benefit, we would like to draw your kind attention
towards another major
fact which cannot be ignored or overlooked.
10. All the senior
officers of Department of Telecommunication who are
on ‘deployment’ in
BSNL, holding major managerial positions in BSNL
have already got their
pay fixed in revised scales as per the
recommendations of VII Central
Pay Commission with 14.2% fitment benefit w.e.f.
1.1.2016. All of them
draw their higher pay and perks from BSNL and
BSNL’s affordability to
pay was not at all an issue for them. If BSNL
employees are denied the
revised pay with 15% fitment benefit, it will
result in an unprecedented
discrimination against its own employees vis-Ã -vis
those who are under
‘deployment’. The fall out of such a situation will
be unparalleled in
the history of indian Public Sector.
11. It will be therefore
unfair if BSNL executives are denied their due pay
revision in the name
of non-affordability, since such a proposition will
have a negative
impact on their morale which in turn will affect
the revival plans of
BSNL.
12. We therefore earnestly request you to kindly
get the
issue examined thoroughly and to ensure that pay
revision as per 3rd PRC
recommendations are implemented in BSNL with 15%
fitment benefit in
view of its strategic national importance.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Rakesh Sethi)
General
Secretary
Source: http://www.aibsnloa.org/
