Stifling Away Competition He Bimal Jalan Committee Was Appointed in February 2010 to Deliberate on Governance, Ownership,T Listing of Bourses and Other Issues
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Covering developments on policy responses, policy implementation and policy distortions on a quarterly basis. Comments are welcome. VolumePP 11,oo No. 4 licyWatchlicyWatchOctober-December 2010 Jalan Committee Report Stifling Away Competition he Bimal Jalan Committee was appointed in February 2010 to deliberate on governance, ownership,T listing of bourses and other issues. The Committee came out with a report on I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E Review of Ownership and Governance of Telcos Set to Steal Market Infrastructure Institutions in Subscribers ..........................2 November 2010. The report makes important recommendations pertaining to market entry No Deregulation of Diesel ...4 norms, fund raising and market exit, which are RTI Activists Seek critical determinants of the state of Transparency ...................... 11 competition in this relevant market. www.google.com Failure of Green An intense debate concerning India Plan ........................... 13 competition amongst stock exchanges has Police to Check Money followed the publication of the report. It has Laundering ........................ 16 been alleged that the report is aimed at helping the National Stock Exchange (NSE) retain its monopoly for the next five years at Cartels Behind Onion least and also work at permanently eliminating any competition. During public Price Rise .......................... 20 meetings, NSEs competitiors the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the MCX Stock Exchange Ltd (MCX-SX) has voiced that if the recommendations of the Committee are accepted then they may be starved of funding and become inconsequential. H I G H L I G H TS The first debate on ownership started in 2002 with Kania Committee. Nearly 19 stock exchanges complied with this requirement by reducing the ownership of Focus on Rapid Urban brokers to 49 percent and increasing public ownership to 51 percent. It was natural Transportation to expect Jalan committee to take into account the progress made by M Ramachnadran ........... 8 recommendations of Kania committee and then suggest the path for taking exchanges to the next level for making exchanges independent for their resources Disseminating Good Corporate as they get into new realm of expansion and technology absorption to become Governance Practices globally competitive. However, sadly, the committee has taken the stock exchanges Neville Dumasia ............ 12 back to the era of a controlled economy as against the spirit of liberalisation and globalisation that has been pursued since 1991. Ill Fares the Land Indian capital markets, which due to lack of competitive environment, have not Nitin Desai ................... 21 been able to create a new generation of intermediaries in tier two and tier three cities with support system as good as tier one cities. Rotting Grain & Judicial Hopefully, the policy makers will reason and consider the whole issue on the Transgression following two moot points: Ashok Khemka ............. 22 1. What are the inefficiencies and gaps in the Indian capital market which are required to be bridged to steer the Indian economy to a sustained nine percent growth and meet the capital needs of infrastructure, MSMEs and the industry at large? The reformer has enemies in all those who 2. What is the need for capital infusion in stock exchanges, depositories, clearing profit by the old order and only lukewarm corporations, brokerage houses and other ecosystem support agencies so as defenders in all those who would profit by the new. Machiavelli in The Prince to address the gaps in this market and ensure its growth? Published by Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), D-217, Bhaskar Marg, Bani Park, Jaipur 302016, India Phone: 91.141.2282821, Fax: 91.141.2282485 Email: [email protected], Website: www.cuts-ccier.org Printed by: Jaipur Printers P. Ltd., M.I. Road, Jaipur 302001, India. I N F R A S T R U C T U R E N E W S D I G E S T Transparency in Tariff Plan year 2010. Therefore, there is an urgent COMMUNICATION The TRAI will frame new need to facilitate rapid growth of Mother of all Scams guidelines to make cellphone tariffs broadband. (TH, 08.12.10) Indicating that a court-monitored more transparent and help customers probe was required in the 2G Spectrum make informed choices about their USO Seeks Autonomy scam, allegedly involving disgraced mobile plans. The regulator was also The USO administration has told former telecom minister A Raja, the examining if it should impose a cap the Department of Telecom (DoT) that Supreme Court said that the scam is on the upper tariff limit for premium it was in favour of keeping the USO the mother of all scams put together. SMSes to ensure that operators, fund outside the purview of the A Bench comprising justices G S broadcasters and other players do not Communications Ministry and re- Singhvi and A K Ganguly said that fleece customers for this facility. organised as an independent body. It given the magnitude of amount The guidelines will also aim to has also told DoT that the new body allegedly involved in the scam, it bring operators who issue misleading may be headed by a Secretary ranked might need monitoring of the tariff advertisements to task. The officer and should be given complete probe The case must be regulators move to interfere in tariff- financial autonomy. investigated efficiently, diligently and related issues is bound to irk the This is in line with the expeditiously... This scam will put to industry, which largely believes that recommendations made by the TRAI shame all other scams put together. all tariff-related issues should be in 2009. The regulator had suggested The court reserved its verdict on determined only by market forces. a complete overhaul of the USO fund a plea filed by Subramanian Swamy Justifying the move to launch a to make it more efficient and seeking a direction to the Prime consultation process on telecom Minister for grant of sanction to tariffs, the regulator had received transparent. (BL, 05.10.10) prosecute A Raja. (FE, 25.11.10) several complaints and Clash over Licence Fees representations from consumers and The six private Direct-to-Home Heat on Cold Calls their representatives seeking further (DTH) operators are on course for a The Telecom Regulatory effective transparency measures. legal showdown with the government Authority of India (TRAI) is all set to (ET, 15.10.10) over the modalities of charging their introduce a new foolproof mechanism annual licence fees. This comes on to bar these irritable calls from January Broadband Network Soon! the back of the decision taken by the 01, 2011. Under the new system, to be The TRAI recommended setting called Customer Call Preference up a National Broadband Network Information and Broadcasting (I&B) Registration (CCPR), if a subscriber at a cost of about A60,000 crore to Ministry to challenge a recent order registers for not getting such calls and achieve 16-crore broadband by the Telecom Disputes Settlement if a tele-marketer still tries to call the connections by 2014. and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) in number, the call would be barred. Issuing its recommendations on court which had given relief to the Further, a new 70-series number National Broadband Plan, TRAI said DTH operators by allowing them to would be given to all tele-marketers the project would be financed by pay their annual licence fees based so that commercial calls can be clearly universal service obligation (USO) on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) as identified. Also, commercial calls fund and the loan given by the opposed to gross revenue. would be categorised subscribers government. At present in India, the Currently, all private DTH can either choose not to get any calls penetration of broadband is 0.8 operators have to pay 10 percent of or select certain areas where they percent as against the tele-density of their annual gross revenue to the I&B would like the calls to come. There 60.99 as of September, 2010. Ministry as licence fees. However, the would also be an option whether one The number of broadband TDSAT order also indicates that AGR wants calls or information only via connections is only one crore as will be calculated at the rate of eight messages. (FE, 29.11.10) against a target of two crore by the percent. (FE, 12.11.10) Telcos Set to Steal Subscribers ith the roll out of mobile already beefed up their network number portability (MNP) for giving their subscribers a better onW a pilot basis in Haryana and quality of service and to churn in a country-wide implementation subscribers once MNP sets off. expected by December 31, MNP allows subscribers to telecom operators are losing no switch operators without changing time in trying to wean away their number in the same telecom subscribers from competition, circle. With 95 percent of the while at the same time, guard market on pre-paid services and their own subscriber base. www.manjul.com the dual-SIM phenomenon, the The game plan is to step up promotions and educate impact of MNP will be restricted to only the post-paid subscribers on the benefits of their services. Telcos have segment of the market. (FE, 13.10.10) 2 October-December 2010 PolicyWatch I N F R A S T R U C T U R E N E W S D I G E S T TRANSPORT Airfares Leave Passengers in Dark UMTA for Bengal irlines making airfares public have left travellers lurking in the dark as there is no information on availability of seats in a particular price West Bengal is all set to have its range.A In order to protect first Unified Metropolitan Transport passengers from an abrupt Authority (UMTA), an agency that hike in airfares and also to will look into the issues of public make ticket pricing transport management and fare transparent, the government determination, in the city and in the had asked all airlines to put state.