Consumer bodies oppose TRAI proposal

NEW DELHI: At a meeting organized by Consumer Coordination Council (CCC) and Assocham, 35 leading consumer organizations of the country united to oppose the proposal made by TRAI on Access Deficit Charges (ADC) saying that the move is anti-consumer, arbitrary and lacks transparency.

In a statement, CCC chairman Bejon Misra said, "We shall go to any extent to protect the consumer, who is unable to speak-up on such unfair levies and will not hesitate to launch a massive awareness campaign through 55 consumer organizations located country-wide to convince the consumer to say no to ADC payments".

According to him, BSNL and TRAI should immediately review their decisions for the unjustified imposition of ADC failing which, the CCC would approach the highest political authorities to sort out the matter in the interest of consumers.

The Communications Convergence Committee of Assocham chairman, Umang Das said, "if we have the objective to achieve 100 million mobile customers by 2005, we must ensure affordability and reach. Therefore, we must examine each and every element of cost, which in many cases are built due to in-efficiency of operations. There should be a fresh consultation process on how costs can be brought down".

The meeting concluded with the resolution that, "all the consumer associations have unanimously agreed towards total opposition to ADC and that they will jointly approach Minister of Communication, Department of Telecom, TRAI and other bodies to ensure that ADC is not levied".

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