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Bharti, Idea to refund migration charges: TRAI

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: Exercising its authoritative power in the telecom arena, TRAI — the telecom regulatory authority of India has directed Bharti and Idea Cellular Ltd to refund migration charges to their respective mobile subscribers.



TRAI has directed Idea to return to its subscribers an amount of Rs 249 charged by the company for migrating the subscribers of Post-paid Plan Buzz-99 to Plan Buzz-199 in the Gujarat circle.



In a similar move, the telecom authority also issued a directive to Bharti Cellular Ltd directing the company to stop the levy of Rs 50 and Rs 200 (one-time charge) being collected from its existing pre-paid and post-paid subscribers respectively.



The Authority has examined the tariff plans recently filed by Bharti Cellular Ltd and found that Bharti has levied one-time charges of Rs 50 and Rs 200 from the existing pre-paid and post-paid subscribers respectively, in a non-transparent manner.



According to TRAI, the said one-time fee levied by Airtel from the existing customers is nothing but migration charges and the action of Bharti Cellular Ltd violates provisions of the 4th amendment to TTO and TRAI's Directive dated 15.3.2001 and 31st Amendment to TTO.



While exercising its powers under Section 13 read with Section 11 (1)(b) of the TRAI Act, the Authority notes its distress in having to censure the service providers. The Authority has moved from a highly regulated tariff regime to a deregulated environment in which the onus of complying with the regulatory principles is reposed with the service provider.

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