Now an association of watchdogs

NEW DELHI: That unity has its advantages seems to have dawned on the country’s regulators for telecom, energy and financial sectors. All regulators, including Trai, CERC and Sebi, have decided to form an association. The watchdogs are keen to maintain a competitive business environment without government interference.

The idea of forming an association of regulators has germinated in the newly-constituted Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) and the source of inspiration is the Bible for the energy sector — the Integrated Energy Policy. Sources said PNGRB chairman L Mansingh and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman Nripendra Misra have, in principle, agreed to form an association of regulators. The idea is to have a forum “to facilitate exchange of views and deliberate on and pursue issues common to all regulators”, a source said.

The initiative was learnt to have been spearheaded by Mr Mansingh. According to a source in Trai, Mr Misra not only endorsed the idea but also suggested inclusion of financial sector regulators. The association would seek to cover all regulators “as the basic regulatory framework for all sectors would be common to a significant extent and every regulator can hope to improve the effectiveness and quality of the regulatory framework by adopting the best practices evolved by other watchdogs”, a source said.

Mr Mansingh may first constitute an association of energy regulators, which would include watchdogs for power, petroleum and coal sectors. “While we pursue the formation of an association of all regulators separately, it appears essential to have a separate forum for the regulators of the energy sub-sectors to meet and exchange ideas as recommended by the expert panel on Integrated Energy Policy,” a PNGRB official said.

PNGRB is looking forward to the appointment of the CERC chairman to aggressively pursue the initiative. The proposed coal sector regulator would be invited to join as and when it is formed, sources said.