Today, if you avail of the fax services at the telecom centres run by the department of telecommunication or at the divisional telegraph office or the central telegraph office, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the cost of faxing has come down from Rs 30 a page to Rs 10 a page. Well, you have to thank the Tiruchi-based consumer group, Consumer Protection Council of Tamil Nadu for this.
Ironically, it took the consumer organisation more than a year to persuade the government to see reason in its demand for revision in fax charges. The Council’s argument was simple and logical: that tariff must be cost-based and the benefit of technology should be passed on to the consumers.
It was on September 25, 2002, that S. Pushpavanam, secretary, Consumer Protection Council of Tamil Nadu, first took up the issue and wrote to then union communications minister, Pramod Mahajan and also to the chairman of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL). His contention was that in 1986 when the fax services for the public was introduced by the telegraph offices, the tariff was fixed at Rs 30 a page for faxing anywhere within India. At that time, the STD tariff for the highest slab (over 500 km) was Rs 37.50 a minute. In 2002, the STD rate had come down to Rs 9 a minute, but the fax tariff had remained unchanged. Besides, the cost of fax machines had come down drastically — from Rs 79,000 to Rs 7,900. Letters to the department of telecom (DOT) as well as BSNL were also sent off.
Getting no response, Pushpavanam wrote to the union ministry of consumer affairs, which referred the matter to the secretary, DOT as well as the BSNL chairman in January 2003. In addition, he requested other consumer groups to join the campaign.
In April 2003, he wrote to the new minister for communications, Arun Shourie. He pointed out that in view of the STD rate coming down to Rs 4.80 a minute (for over 500 km), fax tariff per page should be Rs 4 and certainly not Rs 30. In June, he received a copy of a letter sent by the communications ministry to the BSNL chairman, asking that the matter be examined. Then in August 2003, the consumer organisation finally got a response from BSNL, which however was most disappointing. The letter said that the “proposal of revision of telegraph tariff including bureau fax tariff was not accepted by department of telecommunications under prevailing growth of modern and advanced communication technology”.
Pushpavanam this time wrote to the chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) explaining the demand of the consumer organisation to the advisor, quality of service, TRAI. Finally, the efforts of the consumer group bore fruit. In December he got two letters — one from DOT and the other from BSNL — both informing him that the tariff for inland fax services had been brought down to Rs 10 a page. The consumer group now wants the department to inform consumers about this and also put up boards at telecom centres indicating the revised fax rates. Will the department act quickly at least now?
