TDSAT to hear MTNL's ADC case on Mon

Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) today reserved judgement on MTNL's petition challenging the new access deficit charge (ADC) regime of Trai till Monday, and ruled that it had prima-facie jurisdiction over deciding even on regulations.

Trai had earlier said that regualtions being statutory in nature could only be changed in the Parliament as TDSAT, which was a creation of a statute, could not decide on such matters. "Only High Courts or Supreme Court are the deciding authorities in this matter," it had added.

TDSAT, however, ruled that it had jurisdiction on hearing appeals challenging regualtions of Trai.

MTNL counsel C H Sunderam said Trai's arguments of denying MTNL the ADC from incoming international calls and limiting it to outgoing calls from mobiles and WLL phones were based on the fact that the anticipated rise in outgoing traffic would compensate for the loss.

"Their (Trai's) own data shows no substsantial rise is expected on outgoing calls. MTNL needed the ADC money to the tune of over Rs 550 crore to provide affordable (below cost) fixed line service which was also a trai order," he said.