TRAI likely to be on par with SEBI

The Telecom Ministry is looking to give more powers to TRAI, which will bring it on par with the Civil Courts or market regulatory body like SEBI by amending TRAI’s Act 1997.

“The provision is aimed at conferring powers of Civil Court on TRAI so that the authority can summon persons and examine them on oath, production of documents and also calls for expert assistance in conducting inquiries,” according to an internal note of the Telecom Ministry.

Department of Telecom (DoT) has sought comments from the regulator and different wings of the ministry by May 20 this year.

“TRAI should also have the power to impose suitable monetary penalty on the licensee for non-compliance of terms and conditions of license,” the note said.

The proposed amendment is in line with the draft regulatory reform bill prepared by the Planning Commission.

The letter also added that the proposed amendment would provide the statutory framework empowering TRAI to deal with the problem of telemarketing calls in an effective manner.

DoT, however, is silent on several other demands raised by TRAI.

It said it would seek an internal consensus on TRAI’s long-pending demand for more powers to resolve connectivity disputes between mobile phone companies.

It has also not cleared TRAI’s request for powers to penalise operators for non-compliance of terms and conditions of their licence.

Last year, TRAI had recommended to the DoT to cancel 69 telecom licences of five operators, including joint ventures of Telenor-Unitech, Etisalat-Swan and Sistema-Shyam, for their failure to rollout services and for delayed launch of mobile service.