New Delhi:The Union government has faced a financial loss of Rs. 1,757.56 crore due to state-owned telecom company BSNL's failure to bill Reliance Jio for a period of 10 years, starting from May 2014, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, as reported on April 1.
Despite an agreement between BSNL and Reliance Jio regarding passive infrastructure sharing, BSNL did not enforce it. Additionally, the CAG noted that BSNL incurred a loss of Rs. 38.36 crore because it failed to deduct the share of the license fee from the revenue paid to Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs), the Wire reported.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) stated that BSNL’s failure to enforce the Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) led to a loss of Rs 1,757.76 crore, along with applicable penal interest, from May 2014 to March 2024.
This loss was incurred due to BSNL not billing for the additional technology used on its shared passive infrastructure. The CAG further observed that there was a short billing of passive infrastructure sharing charged by BSNL.
Additionally, BSNL's failure to comply with the terms of the MSA and its neglect to apply the escalation clause resulted in a revenue shortfall of Rs 29 crore, including GST, from infrastructure sharing charges.