The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to notify new penalty norms by January 2015.  Earlier in March 2014, the Telecom Commission had approved a new penalty scheme, which has five slabs ranging from Rs 100,000 to Rs 500 million, for violation of licence norms by mobile operators. The new penalty scheme was introduced in the wake of the fact that DoT had been levying the highest penalty even for minor violations.

Under the proposed scheme of penalty, the minor violations will attract a penalty of  Rs 100,000, which will increase to up to Rs 500 million with the severity of violation. The penalties on the telecom operators, under the new scheme is based on a grade system where the quantum will depend on parameters such as the impact on environment, subscribers, national security and the government exchequer.

Industry estimates suggest that the DoT has imposed total penalties of Rs 68.50 billion on telecom operators at mid-2013. These include fines on minor violations like late submission of papers and absence of placards on mobile towers.