NEW DELHI, MAR 30: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today deferred the implementation of second phase of tariff rebalancing, that was to begin from April 1 this year, by four months. Earlier, the Department of Telecom Services has asked TRAI not to implement second phase of tariff rebalancing due to loss in revenue to the department after implementing revised tariffs last year.The DTS has communicated to TRAI that during the financial year 1999-2000, the net loss in revenue would be in the range of Rs 2,000-2,200 crore and therefore, requested the Authority to review the Telecommunication Tariff Order 1999 (TTO-99)."The TRAI has decided to review the tariff implementation plan, contained in the Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999 (TTO-99). The review is expected to be completed within four months," TRAI said in a statement.The TTO-99 envisaged re-balancing of tariffs wherein an increase in the rentals was accompanied with a reduction in call charges for long distance dialing - STD and ISD. This resulted in a change in the revenue pattern for existing operators including DTS and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).The increase in the rentals and reduction in STD and ISD call charges encompassed in the tariff re-balancing exercise were assessed to be too steep to be implemented in one phase. Therefore, the implementation of tariff re-balancing was specified in three phases. The first phase commenced with effect from April 1, 1999 and was to be followed by the second phase with effect from April 1, 2000.To conduct a proper review, the TRAI considered it necessary to look at the data for the entire financial year 1999-2000, from all operators. The data has so far been available with a lag of about three to four months, TRAI said adding that it was, therefore, not possible to carry out the tariff review before April 1.The Authority said that all tariffs specified for the period April 1, 1999 to March 31, 2000 should continue to apply till July 31, 2000.
