The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadlines for stakeholder comments and counter comments on its consultation paper titled “Rationalisation of Entry Fee and Bank Guarantees (BGs)” to September 6, 2022 and September 20, 2022, respectively. Through this consultation paper, the TRAI had sought views regarding the reduction of entry fees for telecom permits and whether the performance and financial guarantees should be merged for all telecom permits.
In addition, the regulator had also sought views on whether a uniform entry fee must be levied for various service authorisations under a unified licence (UL) and a virtual network operator (VNO) licence. Besides, the consultation paper sought views on the methodology of computing a merged BGs for various telecom permits and a checklist of associated financial/performance parameters. Meanwhile, the regulator also wanted suggestions on whether a merged BGs should be applicable to both new entrants and existing licence-holders.
Meanwhile, the extension comes in the backdrop of the requests from stakeholders. The telecom regulator has now seeks comments and counter-comments by September 6, 2022 and September 20, 2022, respectively, deferring from its original timeline of August 23, 2022 and September 6, 2022, respectively, for comments and counter-comments.
