New Delhi: The Union government has suffered a loss of Rs. 1,757.56 crore after state-owned telecom firm BSNL “failed” to bill Reliance Jio for 10 years since May 2014, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India said on Tuesday (April 1).
Despite an agreement between BSNL and Reliance Jio on passive infrastructure sharing, the former failed to enforce it, reported Press Trust of India.
In a statement, the CAG said that BSNL incurred a loss of Rs 38.36 crore as it failed to deduct the share of licence fee from the revenue share paid to the Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs).
“BSNL failed to enforce the Master Service Agreement (MSA) with M/s. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) and did not bill for the additional technology used on BSNL’s shared passive infrastructure, resulting in loss of Rs 1,757.76 crore and penal interest thereon, between May 2014 to March 2024 to the government exchequer,” said the CAG.
The CAG also noted that there was a short billing of passive infrastructure sharing charge by BSNL.
“Non-adherence to the terms and conditions laid down in the MSA with RJIL by BSNL and non-application of the escalation clause resulted in a loss of revenue of Rs 29 crore (including GST) towards infrastructure sharing charges,” added the CAG statement.
