A meeting of FLRC sub-committee issued the directive urging the government to postpone all the processes till Thursday when a full meeting of FLRC is scheduled to discuss the controversial decision. [break]
The NT board had received the proposal for distribution of incentive allowances endorsed by its Annual General Meeting recently before getting the final permission from the Ministry of Finance.
AGM of NT held in March this year had taken the decision to distribute the incentive allowances worth Rs 458.9 million out of the total profit of Rs 10.27 billion earned during the fiscal 2008/09. NT has already distributed a bonus worth Rs 301.1 million to its employees.
The FLRC´s sub-committee has also directed the government to provide the newly devised formula for distributing incentives for study. NT had decided to distribute the incentives under an old formula which allows distribution of 4.5 percent of the total profit as incentives to the employees.
In response to a complaint lodged by share holders, Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) also has been looking into the case. NT has around 33,000 shareholders.
“We have directed the NT to stop all preparations for distributing incentive allowances to around 6,000 employees until the sub-committee forwards its decision to the full meeting of FLRC,” said Hari Roka, a member of FLRC.
The sub-committee sought clarification from Finance Minister Surendra Pandey and Minister for Information and Communications Shankar Pokharel on Sunday over their decision to distribute the incentives.
“The decision was made before the formulation of new formula, so the new formula is not applicable to the decision to distribute incentive allowance to NT staffers,” said Minister Pokharel.
He also claimed that incentive distribution wouldn´t make much of a difference in enhancing NT´s capability as NT has earned the huge profit despite tough competition among more than half-a-dozen players in the market.
On the occasion, minister Pandey said the decision to distribute incentive allowance was endorsed in line with decades-long practice. “Since incentive allowances are being distributed since 1994, we have given a nod to NT in this regard. However, we have rejected the proposals for other benefits which have not been given in the past,” said Pandey.
Most of the lawmakers including Padma Jyoti, Dr Ram Sharan Mahat, Shrawan Kumar Agrawal and Shanta Adhikari had suggested to NT to focus on widening its customer base and improving its service instead of distributing incentives to its employees who have been also enjoying bonus in addition to other facilities.
Even the senior officials of the Finance Ministry had opposed the ministry´s decision to give permission to NT to distribute incentive allowances.
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