India’s top audit body the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has uncovered major financial mismanagement at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) leading to a loss of Rs 1757.76 crore to the central government. The report points out that BSNL failed to properly enforce its contract with Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) which resulted in lost revenue for the state-run telecom company. Despite Jio using BSNL’s shared infrastructure beyond the agreed terms the company never billed Jio for the extra usage from May 2014 to March 2024. Why couldnt BSNL recover the money? BSNL did not strictly follow the agreement terms with Jio and poor contract management and lack of proper oversight led to massive revenue losses. The company also overlooked an important price escalation clause which meant it lost an additional Rs 29 crore (including GST) in revenue from infrastructure-sharing fees. Other financial setbacks BSNL’s financial troubles don’t end there. Between 2019 and 2022 the company lost Rs 38.36 crore because it failed to deduct the required licence fee share when making payments to private telecom infrastructure providers in 22 out of 28 telecom zones. Additionally poor planning and mismanagement in procurement resulted in an unnecessary waste of Rs 80.64 crore on underground cables that were never used. These lapses highlight serious inefficiencies in BSNL’s financial operations leading to significant losses for the government and taxpayers. BSNLs mismanagement led to tax compliance issues The CAG report also highlighted how BSNL’s financial mismanagement affected its tax compliance. The company failed to verify and process bills for duct hiring charges on time causing a loss of Rs 5.43 crore in unclaimed GST Input Tax Credit. Additionally BSNL’s weak execution of projects and poor contract enforcement led to Rs 4.80 crore in unrealized revenue along with a potential interest loss of Rs 2.31 crore. Impact on government finances As of March 2023 the Indian government had invested Rs 38886.44 crore in BSNL. However due to a series of financial and operational lapses—including missed billing opportunities poor planning and failure to follow agreements—the company suffered a total loss of Rs 1944.92 crore. (With PTI inputs)