MUMBAI: The winter session of the Parliament seems to have seen the passage of one important bill. The Regulatory Reform Bill 2013 has been approved by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh making all sector regulators (except finance) directly accountable to the Parliament. According to reports, the draft bill gives powers of licensing to regulators, which it is not currently with them.

The cabinet note of the draft bill says that regulators will be legally accountable to the parliament and will have to present a report at the end of every fiscal year regarding work done in the previous year and agenda for the next year.

The note was suggested by the Planning Commission. Two functions of regulators mentioned in the draft copy are “to protect the interests of all consumers, by ensuring quality of service and lowering of costs and to promote competition, efficiency and economy and prevent market domination, cartelisation and anti-competitive behavior and for orderly growth of the relevant public utility industry.

On being passed, this bill will put the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) directly under purview of the parliament.