Over 1,000 RINL employees opt for VRS: MoS Steel Varma

New Delhi: Over 1,000 employees of disinvestment-bound steelmaker RINL have applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), Parliament was informed on Friday.

The benefits for VRS-II in RINL are according to guidelines of Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) dated July 20, 2018, Minister of State (MoS) for Steel Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma said in a reply to the Rajya Sabha.

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The minister said the benefits of VRS-II are the same as were extended in VRS.

"RINL offered VRS for opting eligible and interested employees on 14.06.2025. The scheme had commenced on 16.06.2025 and the last date for withdrawal of submitting applications was 18.07.2025. (A total of) 1,017 number of employees have opted for VRS," he said.

As per an official document, the company employed 13,536 regular employees (4,390 executives, and 9,146 non-executives) as on March 31, 2024.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on January 27, 2021 accorded "in principle" approval for 100 per cent disinvestment of Government of India (GoI) shareholding in RINL, which had mounted huge losses.

The government's decision to disinvest RINL, India's first shore-based steel company, attracted huge protests from workers' unions and Opposition parties.

To date, the disinvestment has not been completed.

As on March 31 2024, RINL had liabilities worth Rs 26,114.92 crore and the company had exhausted the sanctioned borrowing limits from banks for working capital and was not in a position to get further loans, as per the Minister of Steel.

In January, the government stepped in to keep RINL as a going concern and approved infusion of Rs 11,440 crore into the company as it was facing serious financial and operational issues.

Speaking further, Varma said, "Of this, an amount of Rs 9,824.00 crore has been released to RINL as per quarterly target."

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), under the Ministry of Steel, is a steel manufacturing company. It owns a 7.5 million tonne plant at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

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