The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is planning to rationalise penalty norms for telecom operators, where penalty for violations will not be automatic and financial penalty will be dealt on a case-to-case basis with technical and financial checks.
The department?s move is aimed at further rationalising penalties imposed on operators for licence norms violations. Under the current mechanism, the department in majority of the cases ends up imposing a blanket fine of Rs 0.5 billion on operators for each licence violation.
As part of the proposed penalty system, DoT is working towards having a two tier structure wherein one level will consider imposition of penalty and the second level will deal with appeals. The department appears to be in favour of the two tier system of penalty imposition and appeal as against the four tier structure recommended by the department?s access division.
However, in order to safeguard government?s interest, DoT is of the view that it would be appropriate to ask operators to deposit performance bank guarantees. Further, it is considering licence cancellation in case of repeated performance violations.
