India's telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday slashed mobile roaming tariffs by up to 56 per cent and also scrapped rental for roaming services -- decisions that would deflate bills of frequently travelling customers.

The TRAI tariff order, which would be effective from February 15, would reduce roaming tariffs from 22 to 56 per cent as compared with the current market rates, Nripendra Misra, chairman, TRAI said.

A mobile user, travelling outside the home network, will now have to pay only Rs 2.40 per minute for making long distance calls as against the existing rates of Rs 3.09-3.99 per minute.

The charges for receiving incoming calls while roaming would go down to Rs 1.75 per minute and that for making local calls within the visiting network to Rs 1.40 per minute.

At present, service providers charge a maximum of Rs 3.99 per minute for receiving incoming calls while roaming and Rs 3.09 per minute for outgoing local calls.

Also, the rental for using roaming services has been done away with and incoming SMS would be free while roaming. A surcharge of 15 per cent on air-time while roaming and a separate PSTN charge have also been done away with.

The new tariff would be applicable to all prepaid and postpaid GSM and CDMA mobile customers.

"TRAI would closely monitor market developments on roaming and if perceptible competition evolves in the market, it would revisit the issue and even consider forbearing roaming tariffs," Misra said.

He said the competition in the market was not forthcoming, so the regulator had to intervene as we were "sensitive to cost".

However, charges for outgoing SMS while roaming continues to be under forbearance, he added.