It ruled that it had prima facie jurisdiction over deciding even on regulations. TRAI had earlier said that regulations being statutory in nature could only be changed in Parliament as TDSAT, which was a creation of a statute, could not decide on such matters.
Only the High Court or Supreme Court are the deciding authorities in this matter, it added.
Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal however ruled that it had prime facie jurisdiction on hearing appeals challenging regulations of TRAI.
TRAI counsel G L Sanghi indicated that the regulator might move the High Court or Supreme Court against TDSAT's ruling on the jurisdiction over regulation.
MTNL counsel C H Sunderam said TRAI's arguments of denying MTNL the ADC from incoming international calls and limiting it to the outgoing calls from mobiles and WLL phones were based on the fact that the anticipated rise in outgoing traffic would compensate for the loss.
Their (TRAI's) own data shows no substantial rise is expected on outgoing calls and the PSU needed the ADC money to the tune of over Rs 550 crore to provide affordable (below cost) fixed line service which was also a TRAI order, he said.
Sanghi said MTNL did not deserve the ADC as it was a profit-making company and as per calculations, it needed only Rs 69 crore (Rs 690 million) and had already got much above that.
The new ADC regime is scheduled to come into effect from February. Sanghi said ADC was a kind consideration of TRAI to give support to telecom companies but was not legally binding.
When per minute usage had increased and the company was making profit, there was no need to continue with that support and in any case the ADC had to be eliminated in a few years' time.
Sunderam said ADC had been recognised in the ADC order itself where TRAI had stated that the amount would not be tinkered with. So how will that amount be collected unless there is enough source to it, he asked.
ADC was given for urban areas for direct exchange lines, which makes MTNL a rightful contender, he added. Fixed operators like MTNL used to receive ADC on incoming long distance calls terminating on their network.
In the new regime, they would not receive the ADC and stand to lose revenue. Last year, MTNL got Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) by way of ADC. On January 6, TRAI lowered Access Deficit Charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural operations.
TRAI has done away with the distance slab within the country and has imposed a fixed rate of only 30 paise ADC for all types of calls across the nation.
Importantly, TRAI has lowered ADC on incoming international calls to Rs 3.25 per minute from existing Rs 4.25 while to Rs 2.50 a minute on outgoing ISD calls from Rs 4.25.
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