MTNL wants to lay off two-thirds of its employees to reduce costs as it is losing money. It currently has 45,000 employees but only needs 15,000 to run its business. MTNL spends over 30% of its revenues on employee wages and had losses of Rs. 2514 crore for the year ending March 2010 due to retirement benefit expenses. It will face opposition from strong employee unions for the layoffs.