EW DELHI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today issued regulations to encourage telemarketers to register by reducing the registration fees and the security deposit with the service provider.

The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Fourteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2013 says some of the major entities like banks and insurance agencies have requested the Authority to reduce the registration fees and also the security deposit with the service providers to remove the entry barrier for small dealers/ agents.

Some of the major banks and insurance agencies have submitted that there are small dealers/ agents, in their business model, who do not have the means to afford the initial security deposit of   Rs 1,00,000 with service providers for taking telecom resources. Since the banks and insurance companies are compulsorily mandating their dealers/agents for registration as a telemarketer with TRAI, they have requested for reduction in the registration fee and the initial security deposit so as to motivate and provide opportunity for these small agents/dealers to register with TRAI as a telemarketer. 

The Authority considered the issue and issued the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Fourteenth Amendment) Regulations, 2013 to address these issues. The salient features of the 14th Amendment to the TCCCPR are:

· The registration period is extended from three to five years.  The existing registered telemarketers can renew their registration by paying a renewal fee of Rs 5000. 

· The Registration Fee is reduced from Rs 10,000 (Rs 1,000 Registration Fee + Rs 9,000 Customer Education Fee) to Rs 5,000, which will be a common Registration Fee, without any separate Customer Education Fee. 

· This initial security deposit with the service provider is reduced Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 50,000.

· The revised provisions of the regulations will come into effect after 30 days.