The Government’s proposal to create a super regulator - ‘Communications Commission’ with the proposed Communications Bill to supersede TRAI Act, TDSAT and even Film Censor Board has been decried by telcos who see it as creating more confusion over an already hassled sector riddled with policy complications, unwanted bureaucratic hurdles as well as red tapism.
“The proposed body would only be correct if the Government creates a combined regulator rather than a super regulator by inclusion of all the powers of the other regulators,” COAI Secretary General Rajan Matthews told The Pioneer.
As a part of its convergence drive to amalgate sectors like broadcasting including television, internet, telecom and media, the Government has proposed to amend the TRAI Act and the Telegraph Act, to set up a a super-regulator which will superimpose on other sectoral regulators including the telecom regulator, censor board and a broadcasting regulator. It is also proposed that the super-regulator will also involve the clearances from other departments like the Environment Ministries, the DoT as well as Competition Commission of India.
“Multiple regulators would only harm the business environment rather than bring about any smoothening of the operations of the telcos,” said Mathews. The super-regulator’s constitution, as the new Communications Bill proposes is to have a six-member regulator will have about 6-7 members and a chairman who will have 5-year tenure. The members will be selected from each sectors like finance, telecom, broadcasting, accountancy, management, law and consumer affairs. It also proposes to replace the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) by a new Communications Appellate Tribunal. The Communications Bill seeks to replace all old and redundant legislations which include the Telegraph Act and TRAI Act.
Moreover, the bill also seeks to replace TDSAT with a new appellate body expected to be called the Communications Appellate Tribunal, which is to be a three member body with a chairman. The tribunal which was started to oversee dispute resolution particularly in the telecom sector will also have power to take up matters on its own.
The proposed Communication Commission is not only to supersede the powers of TRAI and the functions but will also subsume the affairs of some of the other regulators such as the Censor Board, Ministry of Environment, the Competition Commission of India as well as the Department of Telecommunications. Even though there was a effort by the previous government to give a special empashsis on the promotion of convergence by including internet and communications into one and framing policies based on it yet it failed to take off and set off any major policy changes that could harvest its growth.