The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday floated a consultation paper – Validity period of Tariff Offers – on whether the validity period of tariff offers should be considered as 30 days or remain as the 28-day cycle.
“The TRAI has been receiving a lot of references from consumers regarding the offering of tariff by telecom service providers (TSPs) for 28 days instead of a monthly offering.
Consumers’ resentment
“The consumers have stated in their complaints that not only the same causes confusion, but also they feel cheated. It also results in hardships for them as they need to make 13 recharges of the monthly prepaid tariff offering considering the validity period offered as 28 days instead of a month,” the regulator said in the paper.
It further said that the extent of resentment amongst consumers in this regard can also be gauged from numerous RTIs/ complaints on the issue.
“Further, TRAI has also been receiving questions from Members of Parliament on the issue of considering 28 days as month in telecom sector which also underscores the concern surrounding the issue,” it said.
Accordingly, TRAI has identified a few questions for these issues for consultation including – whether TRAI should intervene in the issue of validity period or allow the same to be under forbearance; Whether the period to be specified should be considered as 30 days or a month with requirement of tariff to be renewed only on the same date of each month or separate tariff offers be mandated for 29/30/31 days in addition to the present practice of offering tariff for 28 days; and whether on the lines of a monthly offering, the other periods (quarterly, half-yearly and yearly prepaid) tariff offerings be mandated or just the monthly offerings be required.
The stakeholders have been asked to furnish their written comments by June 11 and counter comments by June 25.