The Hindu Business Line : More powers for TRAI: The wait gets longer

New Delhi, Nov 22 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s hopes of getting more teeth and autonomy anytime soon seem to be fading away with the Ministry of Communication deciding to refer the issue to an inter-ministerial group for consultation without setting any timeframe for a final decision. TRAI had written to the Ministry seeking additional powers and more operational freedom by amending the TRAI Act, 1997.

“The amendments proposed by TRAI require inter-ministerial consultation before finalisation of Government’s views in this regard. No definite time-frame can, therefore, be given for carrying out the proposed amendment or otherwise,” the Communication Ministry official said. Among other things, the regulator had sought powers to impose punitive measure on the operators that do not meet the quality of service benchmarks TRAI had also wanted a 5-year term instead of the existing 3 years.

Financial autonomy

Another key demand was to fund the activities of TRAI from the licence fee collected from the telecom operators instead of from the Consolidated Fund of India. TRAI had pointed out that this would give it more autonomy in line with the regulators of other sectors.

The regulator has also sought amendment of the Act to allow board members and the Chairperson to take up employment with other Government agencies after demitting office. The Chairperson and members of the Competition Commission and of the Securities and Exchange Board of India are eligible for future employment in Central and State Government agencies and local and statutory authorities

The proposals were sent by TRAI to the Government more than a year ago.

The Government sources indicated that the move could be a fall-out of the sharp differences between the Department of Telecom and the TRAI over key policy issues.

For instance, while the regulator had suggested that 3G services should be offered by companies having unified access licence, the Ministry has decided to open up the auction to all players, including foreign telecom operators.