Indian Regulators are expected to function at "arm's length" - implying no Government intervention in their day-to-day operations and decision making. The role of a Government should ideally be that of a policy maker while that of a Regulator as an implementer of that policy. However, recently, a new issue crept up, wherein the inter ministerial body for telecom policy, Digital Communications Commission (DCC), created a controversy when it suggested that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) seek "clarifications" from the Department of Telecom (DoT) before releasing its recommendations on various issues. It has argued that a “more proactive exchange of inputs” can promote “better alignment of perspectives” and result in “swift financial” recommendations and reduce “back references”.
The law provides for TRAI to aid and advise govt on telecom and broadcast matters, while having control over certain issues related to mobile tariffs and telecom interconnect agreements. The controversy was created as the latest discord was related to satellite communications spectrum, its pricing and the revenue share arrangement. Even as DoT downplayed the incident saying it was just a suggestion and not binding, and the intention was only to hasten decision making, some Trai officials thus viewed it as Government intrusion into their area of working.
This sort of issue keeps happening from time-to-time when there is no clear demarcation of the roles of Regulator and the Government. Such issues only create apprehensions that Regulators are not given the independence of decision making that they should have or are given as per Law - and the ultimate decision-making is often at the hands of the Government.
Link - Government suggests to Trai: Consult us before recommendations - The Times of India
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