NT management has included the incentive amount in the compan´y´s financial statement and is preparing to get endorsed at the third annual general meeting on Monday. [break]
The amount is 4.5 percent of total profit the company earned in 2009/10. NT has already distributed total bonus of Rs 347.6 million to its staff for the same year.
Interestingly, sources said that Ministry of Finance (MoF) that used to be strictly against such generous distribution of income has endorsed the proposal without any reservation this time. The proposal has been endorsed by Ministry of Information and Communications (MoIC) as well.
Government had stopped the distribution of incentives following the instruction of Finance and Labor Relation Committee (FRLC) of the parliament in September 2010. FRLC had allowed NT to distribute incentives of the fiscal year 2008/09 which was later stopped by the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse and Authority suspecting irregularities. The incentive amounted Rs 458 million in that year.
Hari Rokka, a member of FRLC, clarified that the committee had only allowed distribution of incentive for the fiscal year 2008/09 and had instructed to stop doling out incentives after that. He said, “Allowing distribution in one fiscal year doesn´t mean that NT gets the right to distribute incentives every year.” According to him, the incident not only means that NT defied the committee´s instruction but also shows Finance Ministry and Communication Ministry in poor light.
Previously, NT´s incentives were determined on the basis of physical and financial targets. NT started providing incentives on percentage basis from fiscal year 2004/05. Employees of the largest tax payer of the country have been enjoying incentives since 1996 when MoF decided to allow public enterprises to provide incentives to their employees.
FRLC members argue that the incentives should be provided as per the performance of the company, not flatly on the basis of percentage. They have stressed that incentives should be distributed on the basis of additional profit made in the last fiscal year.
The company had earned only Rs 600 million extra compared to previous fiscal year, which is not overwhelming compared to the growth of fiscal year 2008/09. Also, the growth rate of 2009/10 was lower than the company´s target.
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