The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has said that it requires more financial independence to impose penalties on telecom operators for regulatory violations, say news reports.
TRAI is of the view that it is difficult to operate as an independent regulatory body if it is financially dependent on the government. It has requested the government that it be given more powers to impose fines on erring operators.
According to TRAI, there have to be different grades of penalty for different types of violations by the operators. Currently, in most of the cases a penalty of Rs 500 million is imposed on the operators for violating norms.
In is proposal to the government, TRAI has suggested that as part of the new licensing norms, a penalty of up to Rs 100 million should be imposed for major violation by the operators and a penalty up to Rs 2.5 million should be imposed on the operators for minor violations.
It has identified a violation of norms resulting in threat to national security, heavy revenue losses to the government and willful and illegal conduct by operators against the terms and conditions of their licenses as major violations.
