BSNL's Billing Blunder: Government Loses Rs 1,757 Crore

The Indian government faced a Rs 1,757.56 crore loss as BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for a decade for infrastructure sharing. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India highlighted these lapses, pointing out additional revenue losses due to failure in deducting licence fees and short billing.

In a significant oversight, the state-owned telecom organization BSNL has cost the government Rs 1,757.56 crore by missing out on billing Reliance Jio for ten years, according to a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. The failure corresponds to their passive infrastructure sharing agreement, left unchecked since May 2014.

The CAG report also draws attention to an additional loss of Rs 38.36 crore, which resulted from BSNL's negligence in deducting the share of the license fee from revenue shared with the Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs). This oversight has compounded the financial impact on the public sector telecom authority.

Further, the audit reveals that BSNL's inability to enforce the Master Service Agreement and apply the necessary escalation clauses with Reliance Jio led to a shortfall of Rs 29 crore in revenue for passive infrastructure sharing charges, including GST. This mismanagement underscores broader concerns over the governance and operational efficiencies within BSNL.

(With inputs from agencies.)