The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to offer operators a discount of over 99 per cent on the maximum of Rs 30 billion in cumulative penalties to be levied on them for multiple violations of licence conditions.
A note prepared by DoT for a meeting with the Telecom Commission (TC) has recommended that only Rs 0.28 billion be charged as penalty?less than 1 per cent of the cumulative penalties of Rs 30 billion applicable under the licence agreement.
However, it is believed that the date for the Telecom Commission’s meeting was yet to be finalized. Over the past three years, several companies have come under the DoT’s scanner for violation of conditions.
These include the national numbering plan and providing mobile services in border areas. Based on these, an internal committee submitted a report in October 2008. This report was considered by the Internal Telecom Commission (ITC) in December 2008. Later, on December 24, 2008, a committee was formed by former Minister of Telecommunications and IT A. Raja to evaluate the scheme of financial penalty for violation of terms and conditions of the licence agreement in respect of subscriber verification failure cases.
In January 2009, the committee submitted its report recommending penalties to be charged for various violations by mobile operators. This report was placed before the ITC in February 2009. The ITC then reduced the penalties to Rs 0.11 billion, or less than half.
The matter was discussed at the July 7, 2010 meeting of the Telecom Commission. The commission directed that an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under the chairmanship of member (telecom), with representatives from all stakeholders, be formed to evaluate the penalties and reductions recommended by the ITC report.
The IMC deliberated on the issue in five meetings and invited presentations from the mobile industry. Meanwhile, Raja resigned and Kapil Sibal took over as telecom minister in December 2010. On December 31, 2010 the draft report of the IMC was circulated and finalized in its meeting of February 1, 2011. In this report, the IMC has decided to charge a penalty of roughly Rs 0.28 billion.
The Planning Commission conveyed its concurrence with the report on January 27, 2011, while the department of industrial policy withdrew its membership from the IMC in November 2010. The MHA has not made any comments on the report.
