M S Verma, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, had a tough time in defending his decision to raise basic telecom tariffs and offer major concessions to the cell phone and WLL users.

While the telecom regulator announced a hike in the rentals for basic telephone services, it declared that all the incoming calls and on WLL would henceforth be free.

Verma was taken aback when one of the journalists asked him if it was not true that TRAI was meant to protect the interests of the elite and business community as it has been passing the burden on to the middle class.

"If that is the impression going around then all that I can say is that it is not very good. TRAI is a constitutional body and it has been created to protect the interests of the consumers. We would be failing in our duty if we did not do so," he claimed.

Verma ducked under another bouncer when a scribe asked him to list the gains as a telephone subscriber and not as a chairman of TRAI. Verma just let the question pass without attempting to answer them.

A senior TRAI official claimed that the fixed-line rentals were highly subsidised as a single 'copper telephone pair' costs as much as Rs 30,000 per subscriber.

Another official of the TRAI admitted that most of the members were in favour of raising the long-distance calls marginally and thereby raising the revenue instead of raising the rentals of the fixed-line phones and reducing the pulse rate from 180 seconds to 120 seconds.

"But some powerful people overruled this decision. Please do not quote me on this otherwise they would be after my life," he claimed.

When asked how much revenue did they expect to raise through the changes that they have been announced, Verma refused to give a categorical reply.

"I have the figures in my office. I do not remember them offhand," he said before calling off the informal discussion with the newsmen on the pretext that he has to rush out for a meeting.