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TO BE PUBLISHED IN THE GAZETFE OF INDIA
EXTRAORDINARY PART II! SECTION 4
TELECOM REGUlATORY AUTHORITY OF INDIA
NOTIFICATION
New Delhi, the 31 March 2022.
No.
C-3/7/(5)/2021-FEA-1- In exercise of the powers conferred upon it under sub-section
(2) of section 11, read with sub-clause (i) of clause (b) of sub-section (1) of the said section,
of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 (24 of 1997), the Telecom Regulatory
Authority of India hereby makes the following
Order further to amend the Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999, namely: -
THE TELECOMMUNICATION TARIFF (SIXTY SEVENTH AMENDMENT) ORDER,
2022
(02 of 2022)
1.
Short title, extent and commencement:
(1) This Order may be called the Telecommunication Tariff (Sixty Seventh
Amendment) Order, 2022.
(2) This Order shall come into force from the date of its publication in the Official
Gazette.
2.
In clause 6 of the Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999,
(a)
sub-clause (xii) shall be deleted;
(b)
after 60 days from the date of commencement of this Order, after sub-clause
(xi), the following sub-clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(xii) Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher,
one Special Tariff Voucher and one Combo Voucher which shall be
renewable on the same date of every month and if the date of such
renewal is not available in a month, the date of renewal shall be the last
date of that month."
(Ka&aI Kishoi
Advisor (F&EA)
&EA)
Tecom
:
Auhorty of ndia
'fR •-U
f/ MUS. Bhawan
T
k-11OOO2/New Delhi.110002
Note.l. — The Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999 was published in the Gazette of
India, Extraordinary, Part Ill, Section 4 under notification No.99/3 dated gth March, 1999,
and subsequently amended as given below: -
Amendment No. Notification No. and Date
:lst
301-4/99-TRAI (Econ) dated 30.3.1999
301-4/99-TRAl(Econ) dated 31.5.1999
3rd
301-4/99-TRAI(Econ) dated 31.5.1999
4th
301-4/99-TRAI(Econ) dated 28.7.1999
5th
301-4/99-TRAI(EcOn) dated 17.9.1999
6t1'
301-4/99-TRAI(Econ) dated 30.9.1999
7th
301-8/2000-TRAI(Econ) dated 30.3.2000
8th
301-8/2000-TRAI(EcOfl) dated 31.7.2000
9th
301-8/2000-TRAI(Econ) dated 28.8.2000
306-1/99-TRAI (Econ) dated 9.11.2000
310-1(5)/TRAI-2000 dated 25.1.2001
301-9/2000-TRAI (Econ) dated 25.1.2001
303-4/TRAI-2001 dated 1.5.2001
306-2/TRAI-2001 dated 24.5.2001
310-1(5)/TRAI-2000 dated 20.7.2001
3 10-5(17)/2001-TRAI (Econ) dated 14.8.2001
301/2/2002-TRAI(Ecofl) dated 22.1.2002
18th
303/3/2002-TRAI (Econ) dated 30.1.2002
19th
303/3/2002-TRAI (Econ) dated 28.2.2002
20th
312-7/2001-TRAI(EcOfl) 14.3.2002
2 15t
301-6/2002-TRAI(Econ) dated 13.6.2002
22'
312-5/2002-TRAI(Eco) dated 4.7.2002
23rd
303/8/2002-TRAI(Econ) dated 6.9.2002
24
306-2/2003-Econ dated 24.1.2003
306-2/2003-Econ dated 12.3.2003
26th
306-2/2003-Econ dated 27.3.2003
27th
303/6/2003-TRAI(Econ) dated 25.4.2003
28th
301-51/2003-Econ dated 5.11.2003
29th
301-56/2003-Econ dated 3.12.2003
30th
301-4/2004(Econ) dated 16.1.2004
301-2/2004-Eco dated 7.7.2004
32'
301-37/2004-Eco dated 7.10.2004
33rd
301-31/2004-Eco dated 8.12.2004
-
c-
0 \v
i
/
c2i
10th
15th
17th
34th
310-3(1)/2003-Eco dated 11.3.2005
35th
310-3(1)/2003-Eco dated 31.3.2005
36th
312-7/2003-Eco dated 21.4.2005
37th
312-7/2003-Eco dated 2.5.2005
38th
3 12-7/2003-Eco dated 2.6.2005
39th
310-3(1)/2003-Eco dated 8.9.2005
40th
310-3(1)/2003-Eco dated 16.9.2005
41st
310-3(1)/2003-Eco dated 29.11.2005
42
301-34/2005-Eco dated 7.3.2006
43rd
301-2/2006-Eco dated 21.3.2006
44th
301-34/2006-Eco dated 24.1.2007
45th
301-18/2007-Eco dated 5.6.2007
301-36/2007-Eco dated 24.1.2008
47th
301-14/2008-Eco dated 17.3.2008
48tFi
301-31/2007-Eco dated 1.9.2008
49th
301-25/2009-ER dated 20.11.2009
50th
301-24/2012-ER dated 19.4.2012
515t
301-26/2011-ER dated 19.4.2012
301-41/2012-F&EA dated 19.09.2012
53rd
301-39/2012-F&EA dated 1.10.2012
54th
301-59/2012-F&EA dated 05.11.2012
55th
301-10/2012-F&EA dated 17.06.2013
56tI
301-26/2012-ER dated 26.11.2013
57th
312-2/2013-F&EA dated 14.07.2014
58th
312-2/2013- F&EA dated 01.08.2014
59th
310-5 (2)/2013-F&EA dated 21.11.2014
60th
301-16/2014-F&EA dated 09.04.2015
61st
301-30/2016-F&EA dated 22.11.2016
301-30/2016-F&EA dated 27.12.2016
63 d
312-1/2017-F&EA dated 16.02.2018
64tF
301-20/2018-F&EA dated 24.09.2018
65th
301-03/2020-F& EA dated 03.06.2020
66th
C-3/7/(5)/2021-FEA-1- dated 27.01.2022
Note 2. — The Explanatory Memorandum explains the reason for the Telecommunication
Tariff (Sixty Seventh Amendment) Order, 2022.
EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM
TRAI has inserted sub clauses (xi) and (xii) in clause 6 of TTO, 1999 which provides that:
(xi)
Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher, one Special
Tariff Voucher and one Combo Voucher having a validity of thirty days.
(xii)
Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher, one Special
Tariff Voucher and one Combo Voucher which shall be renewable on the same date of every
month.
In Response to TTO (66th Amendment) Order, TRA! is in receipt of correspondence from
BSNL/VIL/COAI which are as follows:
BSNL
If a customer recharges on 29 / 30th or 31st Jan, what should be the next due date of
recharge;
If Customer recharges on 31st March, 315t May, 31st August and 315t October, what should
be the next due date for recharge
VI L
VIL has stated that they would be meeting the requirements as prescribed under above-said
TTO (66th Amendment) Order, as per following:
With regard to at least one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff Voucher and one Combo
Voucher having a validity of thirty days, they would be meeting the requirement and have
it in the market within two month time period as provided under the TTO 66th amendment,
across all their licensed service areas. VlL is running 30 Days STV, currently priced at Rs 327
since 6 months across all of their licensed areas.
With regard to at least one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff Voucher and one Combo
voucher which shall be renewable on the same date of every month, they would be meeting
the requirement and have the same in market within two month time period as provided
under the TTO 66th amendment, across three licensed service areas. In the remaining
licensed service areas, they are having technical feasibility issues, which are being worked
upon and its resolution is expected to take more than two months as prescribed by TRAI.
M/s VIL has given a tentative chart showing likely date of implementation for all LSAs which
may extend up to May 2023.
Considering the above issues they have requested for extension of time to meet the
provisions of TTO 66th amendment (recharge with same date of every month), till technical
feasibility issue is sorted out in balance 19 licensed service areas.
COAl
COAl is of the view that with regard to clause 6 (xii) of the ITO, any change to the tariff
validity structure to make it renewable on same day of each month, will require gigantic
efforts in terms of consumer awareness, huge change in prepaid billing systems,
publications in own and 3rd party channels and retail channel education.
2.
Further, as the days of a calendar month are not static (i.e. 28/29/30/31 days),
customers recharge renewal date cannot be kept static for recharges performed on every
day of the month. This will vary month-on-month depending upon the number of days in a
particular month.
3.
They have further stated that TSPs are in process of implementing the said TRAI
order as per the below mentioned approach to avoid any consumer/process confusion
pertaining to the number of the days in a particular month:
(a)
The renewal date for all recharges performed from date 1 to 28th of any month
would remain the same for each month of the year.
(b)
The expiry of the tariff vouchers recharged on 29th/30th/3lst of January would
happen on 28th/29th of February.
(c)
The expiry of the tariff vouchers recharged on 31st of March, May, Aug &Oct would
happen on the subsequent months i.e. 30th April, June, Sept and Nov.
They have further submitted that the timeline of 2 months provided by TRAI in the
implementation of the said Tariff Order dated 27th Jan 2022, is not adequate and
suggested that TSPs need extra time for the implementation of ITO (66 Amendment) Order
and clarification on issue of recharge on same day.
Views of TRAI:
There are broadly two issues which have been raised by TSPs and needs consideration:
(i)
The next date of recharge in case subscriber does his recharge on 31st of the month
and the next date of recharge in case subscriber recharges the voucher on any day between
29th Jan to 31st January.
(ii)
M/s VIL has stated that due to technical issues i.e consolidation of existing 4 partners
to 1 partner in coming partners which may continue till May 2023, they will be
implementing same day recharge voucher requirement in phases and in the interim had
suggested as alternative that they can launch a 31 days' voucher which will be beneficial to
customer.
In this case it is submitted that since this practice of recharge on same date of every month
is in practice in other countries also, we have gone through the practice of M/s Verizon
which is as given below:
"In the case of February, if your monthly renewal date is on the 29th, 30th or 31st, we'll
charge your Auto Pay on the last day of that month".
In view of above, taking in view of submissions of all stakeholders, the Authority has decided
the following:
(I)
To modify sub-clause (xii) of clause 6 as follows:
"Every Telecom Service Provider shall offer at least one Plan Voucher, one Special Tariff
Voucher and one Combo Voucher which shall be renewable on the same date of every
month and if the date of such renewal is not available
in a month, the date of renewal shall be the last date of that month."
(ii) To extend the date of implementation with above modification by 60 days.
(Kaushal Kishore)
Advisor (F& EA)
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