Summary: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on January 17, 2025, issued directives to Regulated Entities (REs) to curb financial frauds perpetrated through voice calls and SMS, acknowledging the increased risk posed by digital transactions and mobile number misuse. REs are mandated to use the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) from the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) to clean customer databases and enhance fraud risk monitoring, including updating registered mobile numbers after verification. They must also provide verified customer care numbers to DIP for publication on the “Sanchar Saathi” portal. Going forward, REs are to use the ‘160xx’ series for transactional/service calls (once operationalized) and the ‘140xx’ series for promotional calls, strictly adhering to TRAI’s Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018). The TCCCPR-2018 framework requires senders of commercial communications (Principal Entities or PEs), such as banks and financial institutions, to register themselves, their headers (alphanumeric identifiers for messages), and content templates (fixed and variable message components) on the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform with Telecom Service Providers (TSPs). This ensures that only registered entities send commercial communications and provides subscribers control over receiving such messages, including Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) for explicit consent. PEs are responsible for maintaining data confidentiality, minimizing intermediary telemarketers, and ensuring direct connectivity with TSPs where possible. Strict measures are in place to prevent misuse of headers and content templates, including periodic review, deactivation of temporary headers, and limiting variable parts. Non-compliance can lead to significant financial disincentives for Access Providers and potential disconnection of telecom resources for PEs, including blacklisting for up to two years. REs are also required to raise customer awareness about DND registration and complaint mechanisms like the ‘Chakshu’ platform and cyber-crime helpline ‘1930’.
RBI/2024-25/105 CEPD.CO.OBD.No.S1270/50-01-001/2024-25 Dated: January 17, 2025
PREVENTION OF FINANCIAL FRAUDS PERPETRATED USING VOICE CALLS AND SMS – REGULATORY PRESCRIPTIONS AND INSTITUTIONAL SAFEGUARDS
Dear Friends,
As you are aware that ,with development of information technology the way of servicing of customers by banks have been changed. Banks/ Financial Institutions are now utilising modern techniques and instruments to serve their customers. They are using internet , SMS, Voice Calls, Telecommunication instruments to share important information related to accounts of customers. Today your mobile number has become important source of collecting and sharing information. Generally in major financial transactions your mobile number is used.
The proliferation of digital transactions, while offering convenience and efficiency, has also led to a surge in frauds, a pressing concern underscoring the need for concerted action. The mobile number of a customer has emerged as a ubiquitous identifier, instrumental in account authentication and verification process, receiving sensitive payment communication, such as OTPs, transaction alerts, account updates, etc. The mobile number, however, can also be misused by scamsters in multiple ways for committing various types of online and other frauds.
To prevent misuse of mobile number of customers by fraudsters , RBI has issued Important Guidelines for sending commercial communication using telecom resources through Voice Calls or SMS on 17th January, 2025.
The RBI has advised Regulated Entities to;
1.Utilize the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL)* available on the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) developed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India to monitor and clean their customer database.
2. To enhance fraud risk monitoring and prevention, the REs are advised to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) incorporating the required action to be taken including, inter alia, updating the registered mobile number(RMN) after due verification; enhanced monitoring of accounts linked to these revoked mobile numbers for preventing the linked accounts from being operated as Money Mules and / or being involved in cyber frauds, etc.
3. Provide the verified details of their customer care numbers to DIP for enabling DoT to publish them on the “Sanchar Saathi” portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/). The details may be shared on the DoT email diu-dot@gov.in
4. Undertake transactional / service calls only using ‘1600xx’ numbering series, when operationalized; undertake promotional voice calls only through phone numbers using ‘140xx’ numbering series; follow the “Important Guidelines for sending commercial communication using telecom resources through Voice Calls or SMS” issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and annexed to this circular. REs are also advised to undertake awareness measures in this regard through emails, SMS and other modes, including in vernacular languages.
5. All REs are advised to ensure compliance with the above instructions expeditiously, in any case not later than March 31, 2025.
| Note: *The Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) developed by DoT has the availability of Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) on real time basis with various categories of disconnected mobile numbers such as mobile numbers;
(i) taken on fake/ forged documents and failed in re-verification, (ii) involved in cyber-crime/ financial fraud and reported by MHA/ Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), (iii) reported by citizens and failed in reverification, (iv) disconnected by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) based on their fraud analysis/ exceeding limit, (v) reported for misuse by other organizations, and (vi) non recharge/ no-usage for long time etc. |
IMPORTANT GUIDELINES FOR SENDING COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION USING TELECOM RESOURCES THROUGH VOICE CALLS OR SMS
As per the provisions of the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018, the Senders of Commercial Communication (Transactional/ Service/ Promotional communications) – such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers – are required to fulfil prescribed regulatory requirements. Senders are also referred to as Principal Entities (PEs).
| On July 19, 2018, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (‘TRAI’) notified the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation, 2018 (‘Customer Preference Regulations’) to curb the problem of unsolicited commercial communication (popularly known as ‘spam’).
The Customer Preference Regulations, inter alia, provide for: (i) Registration of senders (businesses and telemarketers) with telecom service providers to reducing the ability of unknown entities reaching customers with calls and messages that are fraudulent or otherwise of dubious nature; (ii) Registration of headers, i.e. alphanumeric string of characters or numbers assigned to a sender of commercial communications for segregating different types of messages related to one time passwords, balance enquires, flight alerts, special offers, etc.; and (iii) complete control to the subscriber to consent to receiving commercial communication and the ability to revoke the consent already granted. (iv) Additionally, the concept of registered templates for both message service and voice communication has been introduced to prevent deliberate mixing of promotional messages into the transactional stream. The salient features of these regulations also include the adoption of ‘distributed ledger technology’ (or blockchain) by telecom service providers to ensure regulatory compliance is carried out for sending commercial communication. Every telecom service provider is required to develop an ecosystem, with the prescribed functions, to regulate the delivery of the commercial communications to customers. |
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| REGULATION 2(i) “COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION” means any voice call or message using telecommunication services, where the primary purpose is to inform about or advertise or solicit business for;
(a)goods or services; or (b)a supplier or prospective supplier of offered goods or services; or (c)a business or investment opportunity; or (d)a provider or prospective provider of such an opportunity. Regulation 3(k) – “Consent” means any voluntary permission given by the customer to sender to receive commercial communication related to specific purpose, product or service. Consent may be explicit or inferred as defined in these regulations. Regulation3(o)- “Consent Template or CT” means a template of content which is presented to the customer while acquiring his consent and clearly mentions purpose of the consent and details of sender. |
SOME OF THE IMPORTANT REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS ARE GIVEN BELOW.
(A) REGISTRATION ON DLT PLATFORM
(a) REGISTRATION OF SENDERS
(1) All Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall get themselves registered with any of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) (referred to as ‘Access Providers’ in TRAI Regulations) on DLT platform under TCCCPR-2018 regulations before sending any commercial communications through voice calls or messages using telecommunication services.
(2) No business or legal entity, which is not registered on DLT platform under TCCCPR-2018, shall send any commercial communication or cause such communications through voice calls or messages using telecommunication services.
| REGULATION 3 OF TCCCPR-2018
Every Access Provider shall ensure that any commercial communication using its network only takes place using registered header(s) assigned to the sender(s) for the purpose of commercial communication; and (1)No Subscriber, who is not registered with any access provider for the purpose of sending commercial communications under these regulations, shall make unsolicited commercial communication and (a)in case, any Subscriber is sending Commercial Communication, telecom resources of the sender may be put under usage cap; and (b)if the Subscriber continues to send Commercial Communication despite notice given to him under these regulations, all telecom resources of the sender may also be disconnected. |
(B) USE OF ‘140/ 160’ NUMBERING SERIES for making commercial voice calls
(1) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall use only ‘140/ 160’ numbering series (or any other Numbering Series allocated/ assigned by DoT/ TRAI in future for the purpose) for making commercial voice calls.
(2) At present, ‘140’ Numbering Series is operational and is allocated only for making promotional voice calls. Therefore, Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall use only ‘140’ numbering series for making promotional voice calls to their customers or prospective customers.
(3) The assignment and operations of 140 series are being migrated to DLT platform. Existing telemarketers/entities using ‘140’ series shall be required to register their details on their respective Access Provider’s portal once intimated by the Access Provider.
(4) ‘160’ series shall be assigned to the Senders exclusively for making transactional and service calls to their existing customers. It shall be assigned through the DLT platform of the Access Providers and implementation of the same is under progress. Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing customers) shall use only ‘160’ numbering series for making transactional and service calls to their customers. Senders shall contact their Access Providers for allocation of the ‘160’ number series to them.
There shall be no mixing of promotional/upsell/cross-sell/offer-related communication on such transactional or service calls.
(5) Use of 160 series for promotional purposes may lead to disconnection of telecom resources to the Senders, in addition to any other action as stipulated in the regulations.
(6) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers etc., and other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall ensure that they register their Voice Headers ( i.e. indicators in 140 and 160 series) with any of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and send the commercial communications through voice to the customers using such registered Voice Headers only.
(7) Senders shall not use any other 10-digit fixed line/ mobile number for making promotional/Service/transactional voice calls to their customers, either directly or through their employees or channel partners, DSAs, BPO partner, in-house or outsources Call Center etc.
| TRAI’s regulations around 140 and 160-series numbers for marketing and service calls are crucial to ensure compliance, build customer trust, and avoid penalties.
Whether you are reaching out with promotional offers or delivering critical service updates, using the right number series is essential for legal and operational success. 1. 140-series numbers are assigned for telemarketing and promotional calls, 2. whereas 160-series numbers are assigned for service and transactional calls. TRAI regulation mandates that calls must originate with these numbers so that the customers are aware of what calls they are receiving and are not generally misled. |
(c) REGISTRATION OF HEADERS FOR SENDING SMS MESSAGES-Refer Regulation 3 of TCCCPR-2018
(1) Any commercial communication can only take place using registered Headers assigned to the PEs (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) for the purpose of commercial communications.
(2) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall ensure that they register their SMS Headers with any of the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and send the commercial communications through SMS to the customers using such registered SMS Headers only.
(d) REGISTRATION OF CONTENT TEMPLATES
(1) Senders are required to get message Content Templates also registered with the Telecom Service Providers.
(2) These Content Templates typically have fixed and variable components. Fixed part of content is that part of Content Template which is common across all commercial communications sent to different recipients (customers of Banks etc) for same or similar subject. Variable part of Content (referred as Variables) is that part of Content Template which is specific to the particular transaction for a particular recipient (customers of Banks etc) or may vary for different customers on account of reference to name, address, date, time, place, balance, transaction amount, quantity, count or unique reference number etc.
| REGULATION 2( r) “CONTENT TEMPLATE FOR PROMOTION” means a template of content registered by any sender with the access provider for sending promotional message or promotional voice call for the purpose of commercial communication and contains content which is fixed content and common across all commercial communications sent to different recipients for same or similar subject.
REGULATION 2(o)- “CONSENT TEMPLATE OR CT” means a template of content which is presented to the customer while acquiring his consent and clearly mentions purpose of the consent and details of sender; REGULATION 2(p)”CONSENT TEMPLATE REGISTER” means a Distributed Ledger for registration of Consent Template (DLTCS) which keeps record of unique consent template identity along with the content of consent template and details of sender who got it registered, in a secure and safe manner; REGULATION 2(q)“CONTENT TEMPLATE FOR TRANSACTION” means a template of content registered by any sender with the access provider for sending transactional message, service message or transactional voice call, service call for the purpose of commercial communication and contains content which may be a combination of fixed part of content and variable part of content, where; (i)fixed part of content is that part of content which is common across all commercial communications sent to different recipients for same or similar subject (ii)variable part of content is that part of content which may vary across commercial communications sent to different recipients for same or similar subject on account of information which is very specific to the particular transaction for a particular recipient or may vary on account of reference to date, time, place or unique reference number. |
(e) SENDERS (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall ensure that they send their commercial communications by engaging only Registered Telemarketers (RTMs) or establish the direct connectivity with the Telecom Service Provider for this purpose.
| REGULATION 2(bf) -“SENDER”, in relation to a commercial communication, means;
(i)The person or entity who owns the telephone number or the header(s) that were used; (ii)A person or entity that publicly asserts or uses a Calling Line Identity (CLI) or the phone number(s) referred to in the communication, except where such assertion is fraudulent; (iii)The person who sent the message or made a voice call, caused the message to be sent or the voice call to be made or authorized the sending of the message or making of the voice call; (iv)The person or legal entity dealing with goods, or services, or land or property, or a business or investment opportunity that is offered or promoted; except where such entity maintains a distinct legal identity for the division or line of business dealing with offered goods, services or opportunity, in which case such division or line of business. |
(B) USE OF DIGITAL CONSENT ACQUISITION (DCA) SERVICE FOR ACQUIRING DIGITAL CONSENTS OF CUSTOMERS FOR SENDING COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION
(a) DCA facility, established by Telecom Service Providers under TCCCPR-2018 Regulations, enables the acquisition of digital consent of the customer to receive commercial communication over SMS or voice from a Sender for a specific purpose.
Digital Consents are recorded on DLT platform by the Access Provider after its verification by the subscriber through a simple and transparent process using OTP.
(b) The Digital consents recorded on DLT system through DCA enables Senders to send promotional communications over SMS and voice to its customers who have opted to block all promotional communications through DND registration. Consents obtained by the Senders through any other mechanism are not treated valid under TCCCPR-2018 Regulations.
(c) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication that requires obtaining explicit consent from its customers) shall onboard the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) system deployed by Access Providers for the acquisition of digital consent of the customers and integrate the same with their systems/processes.
| What is digital consent?
Digital consent is about asking, seeking and receiving permission online. Examples of digital consent include asking for permission before sharing someone else’s images, videos, posts or text messages online. Digital consent also includes ensuring that children and young people have the right to decide if they allow their content to be used by someone else and how they would like to manage their privacy online. It should be treated the same way as offline consent. Respecting another person’s privacy is important both online and offline. IT MEANS: Legal digital consent plays a role in safeguarding individuals’ privacy rights and regulating how their data is collected, used, and shared digitally. It is a voluntary, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of an individual’s agreement to the processing of their personal data by electronic means. By adhering to the principles of legal digital consent, organizations can respect individuals’ privacy rights. |
(C) ACTION ON THE PART OF PES TO MAINTAIN CONFIDENTIALITY AND SECURITY OF DATA RELATED TO COMMERCIAL COMMUNICATION AND PREVENTION OF MISUSE/ LEAKAGE THEREOF:
(a) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality and security of their customer’ data/information, prevention of misuse/ leakage thereof, and taking corrective/ remedial measures in case of misuse/ leakage of such data/ information by any person authorized by them or otherwise, to handle such data/information including RTMs engaged by such Senders and their employees, agents, representatives, associates etc.
(b) A Registered Telemarketer (RTM) who is an intermediary collects the information such as PE-ID (ID of Senders/ Principal Entities such as Banks, generated on DLT), Header ID, Content Template IDs, customer information, etc. from the Sender and it may travel through a series of such TMs (known as Aggregator-TMs) before it reaches to the last TM (referred to as ‘Delivery-TM’ in TRAI Regulations) before reaching the Access Provider.
(c) In order to maintain confidentiality of data, Senders shall ensure that there are minimum number of aggregator-RTMs (preferably, not more than one or two) in the chain between the Sender and the Access Provider.
(d) The Senders (PEs) – particularly Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, and other Financial Institutions – should preferably have direct connectivity with Access Provider(s), to eliminate any TM in the chain.
(e) As per the Direction of TRAI, a facility is being developed by the Access Provider to bind the message flow from the Sender to the Access Provider’s network as per a pre-defined chain of TMs between the Sender and the Access Provider in the DLT platform. Once this is operational, the Sender shall be required to declare the entire chain of Registered Telemarketers between it (Sender) and the Access Provider.
(f) Senders shall incorporate appropriate provisions in their Agreement(s)/ Contract(s) with RTMs, as a deterrent against misuse/ leakage of Headers, Content Templates, Customer Data, etc. by the RTMs and in no case engage Unregistered Telemarketers using 10 digit fixed/mobile numbers or even unregistered headers and templates if they are not registered with any Access Provider’s DLT portal.
(g) Senders shall immediately disable such Headers/Templates temporarily and also report to ‘Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs)’/ ‘Agencies dealing with Cybercrime’, in case of misuse/ leakage of Headers, Content Templates, Customer Data, etc as it may lead to frauds in the name of the Sender/PEs. The responsibility of such misuse/leakage will lie on the Sender and onus of reporting to the LEAs and appropriate action against the miscreant TM will be on the Sender.
(D) MEASURES TO CURB MISUSE OF HEADERS AND CONTENT TEMPLATES
(a) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall register only minimum required number of Headers and Content Templates and shall review and re-verify, on a periodical basis, all the Headers and Content Templates registered by them and surrender/ close unused Headers and Content Templates. The Headers are not likely to be used frequently and may be kept in temporarily blocked conditions to avoid any chances of their misuse.
(b) Senders shall classify every Header, at the time of registration, as a ‘Temporary’ or ‘Permanent’ Header, as the case may be. All the ‘Temporary’ Header shall be deactivated after the expiry of the time duration for which such ‘Temporary’ Header was registered.
(c) Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall ensure that minimum variable parts are used in the Content Templates as Variables are prone to misuse.
(d) Further, the Senders shall also pre-tag these variable parts for the purpose they are intended to be used such as date, name, currency, URLs, APL-links, unique registration number etc., and no information other than those defined in the pre-tagging shall be included in the variable parts to prevent misuse.
(e) Senders shall ensure that only whitelisted URLs/Apks(Applications)/ OTT links/Call back numbers are there in the message Content Templates. (f) Senders shall not use any URL shortening service or short URLs unless the shortened URL clearly indicates that it has a relation with the Sender, eg. https://bit.ly.com/abcdbank.com/xxxxx i.e, it should contain entity extension.
(g) Senders shall ensure that no promotional content is included in the Content Template registered for Transactional/Service type commercial communications.
(h) Any mixing of promotional/upselling/cross-selling content shall be deemed to be a promotional template only and treated accordingly. For this purpose, the Senders are advised to carefully and responsibly register their Content Templates, and not leave it to third parties/TMs.
E) STRINGENT PROVISION IN THE REGULATION FOR ITS VIOLATION-Use of any other10-digit fixed/mobile number other than 140/160 series for making promotional/Service/transactional voice calls by Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Mutual funds, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication) may result in disconnection of all telecom resources of the Sender for a period up to two years and Sender shall also be put under the blacklist category for that period during which no new telecom resource shall be provided to such Senders by any telecom service provider. Similar action may be taken against the Senders for sending messages without the use of its registered Header(s)and Content Template(s). Misuse of any header of PE to send unintended communication may lead to temporary suspension of PE till such time it reports the incidence to concerned LEA and takes corrective action as per the provisions of the regulations.
(F) CREATING AWARENESS AMONGST ITS CUSTOMERS: Senders shall take steps to spread awareness among customers, in local languages as well, about the remedial actions/steps to be taken in various scenarios as follows:
(a) DND Registration: To avoid the inconvenience caused by UCC, a customer can opt to block all commercial communications or can selectively block commercial communications as per preference categories through the Telecom Service Provider’s App/ Website, TRAI DND App, or Call/ SMS to ‘1909’.
(b)Once the 160-series Service/Transactional Calling facility is live, Senders shall widely publicise their 160-series numbers so as to create trust with its customers and eliminate uncertainty and fear amongst them and also lead to better customer response on such calls.
(c)Registration of Complaints:
(1) In case of receiving spams in spite of registering on DND: Make DND complaint at the respective Telecom Service Provider’s App/ Website, TRAI DND App, or Call/ SMS to ‘1909’.
(2) In case of receiving suspected fraud communication: Report any suspected fraud communication received within last 30 days on ‘Chakshu’ platform of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) at https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/.
(3) In case fraud/ cyber-crime has already happened: If customer has already lost money due to financial fraud, or is a victim of cyber-crime, please report at cyber-crime helpline number ‘1930’or website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in.
(G)These guidelines are only for the convenience of the Entities. However, Entities are advised to refer to the TRAI’s website for the applicable Regulations/Directions and Access Providers’ Codes of Practice (CoPs). Link to download TCCCPR-2018 is https://trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/RegulationUcc19072018.pdf
| REGULATION 21 -IN CASE OF NON COMPLIANCE OF ABOVE REGULATIONS
In case of non-compliance to the provisions of Code(s) of Practice, Access Provider shall be liable to pay, by way of financial disincentive, following amount: (1)not exceeding Rupees five thousand per day(Rs. 5000/- per day) for the period of exceeding the timeline if the period of delay is less than or equal to thirty days; (2)not exceeding Rupees twenty thousand per day(Rs. 20000/- per day) for the additional period of delay which is more than thirty days; The amount payable by way of financial disincentive under these regulations shall be remitted to such head of account as may be specified by the Authority. The total amount payable as financial disincentives under sub-regulations (1) and (2) shall not exceed rupees ten lakhs. The Authority reserves the right not to impose financial disincentive or to impose a lower amount of financial disincentive or no incentive where it finds merit in the reasons furnished by the access provider. Provided that no order for payment of any amount by way of financial disincentive shall be made by the Authority, unless the concerned Access Provider has been given a reasonable opportunity to represent. |
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