Demanding financial independence and power to impose fine on erring telecos, telecom regulator Rahul Khullar has asked the government to amend the TRAI Act.

"Situation in 2012 is different from situation in 1997. For independent regulator it is not possible to financially depend on government. Also, in imposing penalty, how will it work if punishment for a thief and a dacoit is same? You must be able to grade different kind of penalties," Khullar told PTI in an interview.

Though Khullar did not share specific details of the proposal that the regulator has sent to government, he said that the Act needs to be tuned to suit changes in the industry that have taken place since the time it was introduced.

The department of telecommunications in most of the cases imposes penalty of up to Rs 50 crore on telecom operators for violating norms.

Under the new licensing regime in works, TRAI has suggested to impose penalty of up to Rs 10 crore for major violation and up to Rs 25 lakh for minor violation.

The regulator has classified violation of norms resulting in threat to the security of nation, heavy revenue losses to the government and wilful and illegal conduct by the service provider outside the terms and conditions of the licence as major violations.

In March, Trai had asked government to confer it with powers of a civil court along with penal and enforcement authority to secure compliance of operators in public interest.

"...confer powers of civil court on Trai to enable the Authority to summon persons and receive evidence and also call for expert advice while conducting enquiry," Trai has said in its response to DoT's draft NTP 2012.

Khullar said that Trai has written again to DoT after he took charge in May.

"It is something which has been under consideration with government for 5 to 6 years now. After coming here, I took opinion on the matter and made proposal which has been send. Since it is a secret, therefore I cannot tell you," he said.

Under National Telecom Policy 2012, government has proposed to review the TRAI Act with a view to address regulatory inadequacies and impediments to enable it to effectively discharge its functions.

"There are over 100 cases piled up in court to ascertain interpretation of provision that were imposed in 1997. It is therefore better to clear legislation and close the court cases," Khullar said.

Under the existing Trai Act, the regulator makes recommendations either suo motu or on a request from the licensor (DoT) on matters like need and timing for introduction of new service provider, terms and conditions of license to a service provider, revocation of license for non-compliance, management of spectrum and others.