Consumer Affairs Ministry sets up committee to frame guidelines to address pesky, unsolicited commercial calls issues

The Central government has set up a committee to formulate guidelines to address the issue of pesky, promotional or unsolicited commercial calls received by consumers.

The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) has constituted a committee in this regard. The committee will comprise of officials from Department of Telecommunication, Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Reserve Bank of India, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority. Representatives from Cellular Operations Association of India (COAI), telemarketing companies and voluntary consumer organisations will also be part of this committee, an official statement from DoCA stated.

A meeting chaired by Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, was held on Wednesday to discuss issues faced by consumers due to pesky, promotional and unsolicited commercial calls, an official statement added. The meeting was attended by representatives from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance as well.

“In the meeting, it was observed that these calls not only violate the privacy of users but also the rights of the consumers. Most of such calls are from financial services sector followed by real estate. It was also pointed out that spam callers are now switching to internet call, especially using WhatsApp to lure customers into ponzi schemes, crypto investments and offer job opportunities,” the official statement noted.

Telemarketers from various sectors have been advised to get 140 number series prefixed to their phone numbers so as help consumers to control what kind of calls or texts they want to receive. “Various unregistered telemarketers do not follow these provisions. It was emphasised in the meeting that all the telemarketers should ensure strict compliance to these enabling provisions,” the official statement added.

DoT and TRAI have also been making efforts to address this issue. The telemarketers have been advised to get their business entity, sender IDs and SMS templates on DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) platforms. DLT platforms are operator-run portals such as Airtel, Vodafone, Jio, BSNL etc, where businesses need to register by giving their business details.

TRAI has also released new guidelines for the Bulk SMS Service Industry by introducing DLT, a block-chain based registration system, that will maintain the record of all transactions made by business entities.

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