Government lost Rs 1,757 crore because BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio: CAG report

The Union government lost Rs 1,757.56 crore after state-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited did not bill Reliance Jio for almost 10 years despite an agreement between them about infrastructure sharing, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found in an audit.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the watchdog of the state exchequer and is responsible for auditing government accounts to ensure proper use of public funds.

“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,” the auditing body said.

The two firms signed a deal in 2014 for the lease of around 4,000 mobile towers, which are considered “passive infrastructure”.

Apart from the loss linked to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, the auditing body also found that BSNL incurred a loss of Rs 38.36 crore between 2019-’20 and 2021-’22 after it failed to deduct licence fees from the revenue share paid to telecom infrastructure providers.

The report states that the government has invested a total of Rs 38,886.44 crore in BSNL as of March 2023. However, lapses on the part...

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