Consumer Affairs Dept to check spam calls, committee to be set up

Shri Rohit Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) chaired a meeting today to discuss the solution for the issue of pesky/ promotional/unsolicited commercial calls.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Dept. of Telecom, TRAI, COAΙ, and the three private sector telcos – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea..

In this meeting, they discussed in detail the issue of spam calls and how they are now switching to internet call, especially using Whatsapp to mislead consumers. It was proposed in the meeting to constitute a committee for drafting guidelines for regulating and checking pesky calls.

The TRAI guidelines have been issued a few months back, and the PEs intimated. Customer consent is obtained and maintained by the PEs. The regulator has asked the telcos to onboard Principal Entities (PEs) such as banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, and real estate companies into the new system to curb spam calls.

“The Consumer Affairs Department had been keen on understanding the steps being taken to reduce spam calls. They also communicated to us that they continue to receive many complaints on spam calls,” DoT officials said.

CT Bureau