BT will bring at least 2,000 call-centre jobs in India back to Britain as it prepares to close about half its customer service operation on the sub-continent, it emerged yesterday.

Ian Livingston, BT’s chief executive, disclosed the move in response to a shareholder question at the telecom group’s annual meeting.

BT will transfer at least 2,000 jobs in India to Britain, where the group has 11,000 customer service staff.

However, the eventual number of customer service positions that will be repatriated is understood to be closer to 2,750, representing half the group’s 5,500 call-centre staff in India.

One BT investor received a huge round of applause when she asked the group when it would close the Indian call centres.

The job repatriation was disclosed in Mr Livingston’s answer.

BT’s action follows moves by businesses such as Powergen, Abbey and Orange to close some or all of their Indian call-centre operations.

BT insisted that its move had nothing to do with the quality of service offered in India.

A BT spokesman said: “This is not about customer service, as the service in our operations around the globe is of very similar standards. It is about the effective deployment of our resources.

“We have opportunities to bring some activities, carried out by our partners, back from outside the UK to permanent BT employees in the UK who are skilled to do this work.”

BT shed 15,000 staff last year and is cutting a further 15,000 posts this year.

It has so far made no compulsory redundancies among people it employs directly in the UK — as opposed to contractors and agency staff — and it said that the transfer of jobs would help to ensure that it does not break this tradition.

BT said that its redundancy plan did not include the loss of any customer service jobs in the UK.

Shareholders vented anger over BT executives’ pay and bonuses, and 16 per cent of them either abstained on, or voted against, the remuneration report.

One shareholder branded the report “incomprehensible”, drawing attention to the £686,000 bonus that Mr Livingston will receive, despite BT hitting none of its financial targets, and the £1.6 billion “termination” payment that formed part of the exit package for François Barrault, who resigned as head of BT’s troubled IT unit last year.

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