Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday said it cannot regulate mobile tariffs, although it felt that a recent hike in call and SMS rates by some operators was not in the interest of consumers.
"Mobile tariffs fall under forbearance (whereby the operators have freedom to fix tariffs)... although the recent hike in tariffs of SMS and local calls is not a consumer friendly measure but there is no scope for intervention as long as there is forbearance," Trai Chairman Nripendra Misra told PTI.
Two leading GSM operators -- Airtel and Hutch -- hiked local call charges within their own networks to Rs 1.20 a minute from Re 1 and also SMS tariffs were raised to Rs 1.20 from Re 1. Earlier this month, they had raised STD rates too.
"We would like to protect the principle of forbearance which is an international practice... We would like to honour that commitment," he said, adding that the recent hike did not mean that Indian customers were less better than those across the world.
"The tariffs in India are reasonably low than anywhere in the world," he said, but also did not see rates rising after the hike by these two operators.
"But I would like the telecom companies to be more transparent which is in their interest."
In rural India, the basic tariffs are decided by the government, while mobile tariffs are market driven. The operators are also required to inform the change in any tariff structure to the customers as well as to the regulator for the purpose of awareness and transparency.
In the recent case, the operators had published small advertisements in the newspapers but did not inform subscribers either through SMS or call.