CAG Exposes Financial Irregularities and Revenue Losses in BSNL
BSNL i driving 4G saturation
BSNL Fails to Bill Reliance Jio to Incur Losses: CAG Report
By TRH News Desk
New Delhi, April 1: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in a report tabled in parliament on Tuesday exposed financial irregularities in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The CAG in its report said that the BSNL failed to bill the Reliance Jio while incurring losses.
BSNL failed to enforce its Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL), leading to a loss of ₹1,757.76 crore, including penal interest, from May 2014 to March 2024 due to non-billing of additional technology usage on shared passive infrastructure.
In 22 out of 28 telecom circles, BSNL did not deduct the share of License Fees from payments made to Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs), leading to a loss of ₹38.36 crore between 2019-20 and 2021-22, said the CAG in its report.
“BSNL failed to apply the escalation clause in its agreement with RJIL, resulting in a revenue loss of ₹29 crore (including GST) due to short billing on passive infrastructure sharing charges,” added the CAG in its report.
BSNL did not verify and process bills for duct hiring charges within the statutory period required to claim GST Input Tax Credit, causing a loss of ₹5.43 crore, said the CAG in its report.
The CAG further stated that a recent audit on revenue sharing between Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and the Government, conducted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), highlighted delays, under-assessments, and compliance deficiencies in revenue collection.
The audit focused on the assessment, collection, and accounting of License Fees and Spectrum Usage Charges, which averaged ₹13,947 crore annually between 2017 and 2022.
“The audit covered six TSPs and found that revenue assessments were delayed, taking an average of 20 months instead of the prescribed 12 months. Under-assessment and under-recovery were observed in 9.23% of test-checked cases, amounting to ₹2,463.67 crore,” added the CAG in its report.
It also stated that the “audit identified several issues, including ambiguities in directives, non-compliance with orders, non-realization of pending dues, errors in assessments, and improper accounting”.
“Many of these concerns were related to Spectrum Usage Charges. Additionally, SARAS (System for Assessment of LF Revenue and SUC), the Revenue Management Software introduced in January 2021, was found to have deficiencies that hindered accurate revenue assessment and collection,” added the CAG in its report.
Join the WhatsApp Channel of The Raisina Hills
Follow on Google News https://news.google.com/publications/CAAqBwgKMNK2vwsw39HWAw?hl=en-IN&gl=IN&ceid=IN%3Aen
About The Author
