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Unsolicited tele-marketing calls: TRAI hardens stand

NEW DELHI: Further hardening its stand on the unsolicited commercial call issue, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Monday said it would impose a fine of up to Rs. 5,000 on service providers for first unsolicited tele-marketing calls and messages to the customers registered with the ‘national do not call’ (NDNC) registry and will have to shell out up to Rs. 20,000 in case of second or subsequent non-compliance.

Stating that the Telecom Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC) (Amendment) Regulations, 2008, has been amended, TRAI said it would also impose a tariff of Rs. 500 on the registered telemarketer for the first unsolicited call and Rs. 1,000 for the second or any subsequent unsolicited call. “To discourage the registered telemarketers from sending Unsolicited Commercial Communications, the Tele-communication Tariff Order, 1999, is also being amended simultaneously by the TTO (Forty-seventh Amendment) so that Rs. 500 would be payable as tariff for every first unsolicited commercial communication and Rs. 1,000 for every subsequent unsolicited commercial communication,” it said.

“The objective is to increase the effectiveness of compliance of these regulations by providing financial disincentive to non-compliant telecom service providers and thereby reducing the nuisance and inconvenience to the subscribers from the unsolicited tele-marketing calls/messages,” it said. The regulation would come into effect from the date of its publication in the gazette notification.

TRAI also said that till date, more than 83-lakh phone users have registered with the NDNC Registry. About 13,600 telemarketers have got themselves registered with the Department of Telecommunication. It is being accessed daily by about 600 tele-marketers for scrubbing their calling list.

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