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NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: India’s top telecom operators decried the sector regulator’s suggestion that the government grant service authorisation to companies offering communication services instead of entering into a contractual agreement, warning that such a move would ring in regulatory uncertainty and undermine investor confidence.All three private carriers — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) — unanimously stated during a consultation process of the regulator that the current practice of contractual arrangement should continue as it provides regulatory certainty and predictability. But the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has not agreed to the demand of telcos.Trai has suggested that the Centre grant service authorisation under Section 3(1) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023, instead of entering into an agreement. It also said the rules for service authorisation should be prescribed separately under the Telecommunications Act.In such a scenario, a top telco executive wondered how a company would have any clarity on what the rules would be in future. “An agreement now is binding, and telcos can challenge if the government unilaterally changes something, but that won’t be possible in the new (proposed) framework.”Industry executives added that when operators get a licence, all terms and conditions are specified, which allows them to plan their future roadmap. So even if the government wishes to change certain terms and conditions, it cannot do so unilaterally, and a notice must be given to the telcos first. 113502101On Wednesday, Trai recommended a complete overhaul of the licensing regime, suggesting a unified authorisation to offer all kinds of telecom services from mobile and internet to international calls across the country, and three broad categories of service — main, auxiliary and captive. The proposed unified authorisation would enable an entity to offer all kinds of telecom services including mobile, internet, landline, national long distance, international long distance, satellite and machine-to-machine (M2M) across the country.Industry veteran Parag Kar, former vice president (government affairs) at Qualcomm India, said Trai’s recommendations to transition from a licensing to an authorisation regime — aligned with the new Telecommunications Act’s shift from contract-based licensing to an approval-based authorisation — are aimed at modernising telecom regulations.But he feels that despite good intentions, the suggested changes fall short in practice. “This is since compliance demands remain unchanged under the proposed new regime, and the anticipated reduction in paperwork has little effect in a saturated market with no significant new entrants.”Industry executives said Trai’s suggestions offered no meaningful benefits for service providers as there is no real change in the allotment mechanism of critical bottleneck resources such as spectrum or mobile/landline numbering. “Entrenched issues like circle-based spectrum assignments persist, leaving operational efficiencies unimproved. These reforms fail to make a meaningful impact, maintaining the status quo," said Kar.The telecom industry, on its part, has backed the push for a unified authorisation to offer all kinds of services. But experts stressed that compliance issues remain circle-wise.“What difference would it make to telcos even if they take the unified authorisation. All different compliances would continue to be given circle-wise, so the burden remains the same for telcos,” the first executive said.While Trai has outlined authorisation terms and conditions for telecom operators, satellite players, internet service providers and M2M among others, over-the-top (OTT) has been kept out of the mechanism.

Ace investor Radhakishan Damani has sold 1 lakh shares in VST Industries for Rs 4.4 crore via block deal. He sold shares at a price of Rs 439.05 apiece which was slightly above the Wednesday closing price of Rs 437.85.Today the stock settled at Rs 444, gaining by Rs 6.15 or 1.40% Damani who is the founder and promoter of DMart, had on Tuesday sold 1 lakh shares or a 0.64% stake in VST Industries for Rs 4.39 crore via a bulk deal.In the block deal, the buyers were Reliance Mutual Fund and Thrift Savings Plan. These 1 lakh shares sold today represent 0.65% stake in VST Industries.After the share sale, Damani's holding in VST Industries has come down to 2.82 per cent from 3.47 per cent.Reliance Mutual Fund and Thrift Savings Plan acquired 1,68,970 shares, amounting to a 1.09 per cent stake in VST Industries in the price range of Rs 439.96-440.74 apiece, taking the transaction value to Rs 7.44 crore.Thrift Savings Plan is a contribution plan for United States civil service employees and retirees as well as for members of the uniformed services.

Markets regulator Sebi on Thursday tweaked the framework for valuing the investment portfolios of Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) whereby securities -- other than unlisted, non-traded, or thinly-traded securities -- will now be valued in line with mutual fund rules. This came after the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) received feedback from the AIF industry on challenges with the valuation framework and has made changes based on public comments and internal discussions. Modifying the rules, the regulator said, "valuation of securities, other than unlisted securities and listed securities which are non-traded and thinly traded, for which valuation norms have been prescribed under Sebi (Mutual Funds) Regulations shall be carried out as per the norms prescribed under MF rules". Further, valuation of thinly-traded and non-traded securities will be harmonized across Sebi-regulated entities by March 31, 2025. Also, the regulator said changes in valuation methods to comply with these rules will not be considered "material changes," but must be disclosed to investors. With regards to independent valuers, Sebi said the framework for independent valuers of AIF portfolios now requires the valuer to be part of a registered entity such as ICAI, ICSI or a CFA charter. Further, AIFs will now have seven months, as compared to six earlier, to report valuations based on audited data from investee companies. AIF trustees or sponsors are required to ensure that managers include compliance with these rules in their compliance reports. These changes will take effect immediately, Sebi said.

Kolkata: Jana Small Finance Bank has decided to offer a flat 6.75% rate for short term deposits over Rs 10 lakh and removed penalties for early withdrawal to attract deposits at the short-end of its liability profile.The offer came into effect from September 19 for deposits with maturity ranging from seven days to 180 days.For small savers, deposit rates for seven days to 180 days will remain between 3.5% and 6.5% while seniors will get 50 basis points higher over the card rates."The new product is exactly like a liquid fund but with the same day redemption facility. We were not getting short term funds. We hope this product will bridge this gap," Jana managing director Ajay Kanwal told ET.Out of the bulk deposits, 90.7% were for one year and above while about 98% of the retail deposits were more than one year."Our aim is to serve a new segment of customers who will look at short term bank deposits for managing surplus money,” Kanwal said.