TRAI extends deadline for views on floor rates

New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has extended timeline for receiving comments over its consultation paper, ‘Tariff Issues of Telecom Services’ which seeks views on fixing a floor price for voice and data services on telecom networks.

The deadline for filing comments and counter comments has been extended till February 28 and March 13, respectively.

Warning that the exercise (of fixing tariffs) was deemed ‘markdistorting’ by economists, the consultation paper floated by the telecom watchdog on December 17 asks if there is a case for regulatory intervention to fix a floor price in a market that recently saw tariff hikes of up to 50%. It has further sought views from the industry stakeholders on methodology to compute the floor rate. It has even asked in case the regulator fixes a floor price, would it also cap the tariff rate.