GUWAHATI: The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has revealed that the government suffered a massive loss of ₹1,757.56 crore due to BSNL’s failure to bill Reliance Jio for passive infrastructure sharing over the past 10 years.
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The state-owned telecom company did not enforce the terms of its Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL) since May 2014, leading to a significant revenue shortfall.
According to CAG’s latest report, BSNL also incurred an additional loss of ₹38.36 crore as it failed to deduct the required licence fee share from payments made to Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs).
"BSNL’s non-compliance with the MSA and its failure to charge RJIL for additional technology use on its shared infrastructure resulted in a loss of ₹1,757.76 crore, along with penal interest, between May 2014 and March 2024," the CAG report stated.
The audit also pointed out shortfalls in billing for passive infrastructure sharing, with BSNL neglecting to apply the escalation clause in its agreement with Reliance Jio. This oversight led to an additional revenue loss of ₹29 crore (including GST).