Penalty norms for telcos to be finalised soon: Prasad

The government will soon finalise a new penalty rule for telecom operators, communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today.

"The process of rationalisation for (the) imposition of penalty is under active consideration," Prasad said.

When asked about the specific time line, the telecom minister said that it will be put in place "very soon".

The Telecom Commission, an inter-ministerial panel, in March 2014 had approved a new penalty scheme with five slabs ranging from Rs1 lakh to Rs50 crore for violation of norms by mobile operators. But they are yet to be notified.

Under the proposed scheme of penalty, fines start with a warning that invite a penalty of Rs1 lakh for a minor violation and move up in line with severity at Rs1 crore, Rs5 crore, Rs20 crore and Rs50 crore.

Apprehending that they may be charged with favouring telecom operators, DoT officials had started imposing a maximum penalty of Rs50 crore even for minor mistakes.

"Earlier, the elements of flexibility and discretion were not there," Prasad said.

He said that the next two years will be great for expansion of mobile services driven by quality.

In the coming days, common service centres, rural post offices, rural BPO schemes and digital village scheme are going to be game changers, he said.

"These four things will become cutting edge base of digital India."

The government will increase the number of common service centres (CSC) to two lakh and convert most of the rural post offices into CSC, the minister said.