Bharat Sanchar Nigam Restricted (BSNL) is making ready an in depth response to the Division of Expenditure (DoE), contesting the Comptroller and Auditor Basic’s (CAG) declare that the state-run telecom operator suffered a lack of Rs 1,757.76 crore on account of non-billing of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) for shared telecom infrastructure between Could 2014 and March 2024.
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BSNL Responds to CAG’s Allegations
“There isn’t any income loss to BSNL, as earlier demand, and due to this fact, loss (of Rs 1,757.76-crore) had been erroneously overestimated on account of misrepresentation and utility of the clause for add-on elements,” stated the state-run telco in its response, in line with an ETTelecom report.
Moreover, the telecom firm is prone to state in its rejoinder that the circles had already issued invoices to Reliance Jio amounting to Rs 108 crore and are actively pursuing the gathering of extra expenses past the usual base rental paid by the personal telco.
“BSNL did not implement the Grasp Service Settlement (MSA) with M/s. Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) and didn’t invoice it for the extra know-how used on BSNL’s shared passive infrastructure, leading to lack of Rs 1,757.76-crore and penal curiosity thereon, between Could 2014 to March 2024 to the federal government exchequer,” CAG in its report stated, as per an earlier report.
The nation’s auditor apparently ignored the truth that the settlement with Jio for infrastructure sharing was reciprocal in nature, the report quoted unnamed sources as saying.
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Addendum Signed for 4G Utilization Costs
In accordance with the report, BSNL, in its yet-to-be-made submission, additionally stated that the itemised charges already agreed upon by Jio in April 2018 have been provided for added {hardware} and energy for utilizing each TDD and FDD know-how past the usual configuration.
Following Jio’s consent, BSNL reportedly added that an addendum to the Grasp Service Settlement was signed with Jio on January 31, 2025, outlining the relevant expenses for the usage of 4G TDD and FDD spectrum.
BSNL has traditionally monetised its telecom infrastructure by sharing it with personal gamers resembling Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Concept to scale back capital and operational expenditure.
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Infrastructure Sharing Technique
To chop down on capital (capex) and operational (opex) bills, BSNL entered right into a telecom infrastructure sharing settlement in 2014 with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and the then-separate entities Vodafone India and Concept Mobile.
In 2020, then Minister of Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad had knowledgeable Parliament that of the 13,146 cell towers shared by BSNL, 8,363 have been with Reliance Jio, 2779 have been shared with Bharti Airtel, and 1,782 with Vodafone Concept.
Information obtainable reveals that Jio paid BSNL Rs 171.81 crore in 2016–17, Rs 472.80 crore in 2017–18, Rs 678.38 crore in 2018–19, and Rs 402.28 crore within the first three quarters of 2019–20, in line with the report.
BSNL is prone to submit its response to the Centre after acquiring the required approvals later this month, the report added.
