BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for sharing infra for 10 years, government lost ₹17.57 billion: CAG

The state-owned telecom firm BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for 10 years since May 2014 as per their agreement on passive infrastructure sharing

• India Weekly
• 02 April, 2025

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By: India Weekly

THE GOVERNMENT suffered a loss of ₹17.57 billion (£15.85 million) as state-owned telecom firm BSNL failed to bill Reliance Jio for 10 years since May 2014 as per their agreement on passive infrastructure sharing, Comptroller and Auditor General of India has said.

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) in a statement on Tuesday (1) said that BSNL incurred a loss of ₹383.6 million (£3.47m) 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 ₹17.57 billion and penal interest thereon, between May 2014 to March 2024 to the government exchequer,” CAG said.

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 ₹290 million (£2.63m) towards infrastructure sharing charges,” the statement said. (PTI)