Vodafone India has started cutting its job ahead of the merger with Idea Cellular, Economic Times reported on Tuesday.

Vodafone is reported to have offered golden handshake to nearly 75 employees in Level 1 to Level 4 positions. As part of the golden handshake strategy, Vodafone’s final payment will be annual salary multiplied by the number of years spent with the telecom operator.

For instance, an employee, who has worked for 5 years with an average annual salary of INR 10 lakh, will receive INR 50 lakh as compensation. But the golden handshake is available to select high-performers only.

Earlier, telecom operators such as Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications have removed employees as part of ensuring financial stability to their mobile operations in the country.

Roll out of 4G technology, introduction of digital wallets, popularity of smart phones and other developments in the telecom sector are likely to increase job opportunities by 30 lakhs by 2018, according to an ASSOCHAM-KPMG joint study.

Emerging technologies such as 5G and M2M are expected to create employment avenues for almost 870,000 individuals by 2021, said the ASSOCHAM-KPMG joint study.

At present, Vodafone and Idea Cellular are awaiting the final clearance from the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) to formally announce the creation of Vodafone India, the largest telecom operator in India. Vodafone and Idea have already started the integration work.

The Department of Telecom (DOT) has given approval to the merger of Vodafone and Idea in July 2018 after the companies paid INR 72 billion — INR 39 billion in cash and INR 33 billion as bank guarantees — as spectrum liberalisation charge and a one-time spectrum payment.

The merged entity, as per the DoT guidelines, needs to reduce its wireless market share based on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) in Kerala, Maharashtra (combined market share in March 2018 was 54 percent) and Gujarat circles to less than 50 percent within one year from the date of approval.