CMAI demands separate consumer court for telecom

Communication, Media and IT Association of India (CMAI), the only integrated association in India for Telecom and IT sector has demanded separate consumer court for special attention of telecom sector in India.

The association also wants that operators remove Mobile Termination Charges (MTC).

"Telecom industry of India is growing by 40 per cent every year and we have about 500 million subscribers. As industry is growing, problems have also increased and that's why a separate consumer court is needed," said Ravi Sharma, executive chairman, CMAI.

Talking about the need for a separate consumer court, Sharma said, "There have been always minor or major issues which consumers faced. However, they had only two options, either they spend quality time and money to sort out the problem with customer care who are of course biased and needs to secure the companies image or they change their number and move to another telecom operator. The consumer today has no recourse for their complaint. CMAI is therefore demanding consumer courts so that consumers can approach these special courts if operator does not take care of their complaints."

On MTC, Sharma told Business Standard, "Whenever a call is terminated on operator's network he gets 20 paisa per minute. Making it zero will further reduce mobile charges by 20 paisa per minute. This will benefit mobile consumers particularly in rural area because mobile charges will drop to 10 paisa per minute."

Central government has responded positively to CMAI for separate consumer court and Law ministry has asked the ministry of Communications and IT to work towards setting up consumer courts specifically for mobile-users.