NITI Aayog seeks law to regulate the regulators

A new draft law recommends segregation of non-judicial and judicial work of regulators and stipulates criteria for selection of chairperson and members of regulatory bodies in the country.

Updated on: Oct 8, 2015, 01:18:17 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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A new draft law recommends segregation of non-judicial and judicial work of regulators and stipulates criteria for selection of chairperson and members of regulatory bodies in the country.

The port regulator is mandated to set tariffs only whereas the electricity sector regulators have much wider powers. (HT File Photo)

The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog has submitted a draft of a law to regulate the regulators to the finance ministry that aims to create a uniform national framework for orderly development of infrastructure and protection of consumer interests.

“We have held consultations with representatives of 30 stakeholder bodies and have recommended a draft that would change basic functioning of some of the regulatory bodies. It will lead to uniform regulatory system in the country,” a NITI Aayog functionary told HT.

As of now, the port regulator is mandated to set tariffs only whereas the electricity sector regulators have much wider powers of rule-making, licensing, power market development and imposing of penalties. The telecom regulator’s job is also to promote competition, which is not assigned to port or electricity regulators. Only some sectors like electricity and telecom have appellate tribunals whereas others like ports do not have such tribunals and perform both the functions.

A big change the panel had recommended is that the function of rule-making and administration of rules should be separated from judicial function. This would mean that the regulator will frame rules and ensure their implementation whereas the appeals against the orders passed by the regulators would be heard by Appellate Tribunals.

Sources said the proposed law would result in creation of regulators and appellate bodies for infrastructure sectors such as road and civil aviation. It will lead to curbing of over-arching powers of some of regulators. “The decision on this will have to be taken by the finance ministry,” the NITI Aayog official said.

He said the draft law prescribes elaborate procedure for appointment and removal of chairpersons and members of the regulating bodies and the tribunals. This is to reduce government intervention and to ensure transparency in functioning of the regulatory bodies, the official said.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech 2015-16 had announced introduction of regulatory reforms law across various sectors of infrastructure. The UPA government in 2013 had drafted the regulatory reforms bill but it could not be taken up by the cabinet due to differences.

The NDA government is expected to take a decision on the new regulatory framework that it believes would infuse more investment into the infrastructure sector and will result in ease of doing business. Officials expect the bill to be introduced in winter session of Parliament.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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