The Supreme Court last week determined that some sections of the Telecommunications Amendment Bill are inconsistent with the Constitution of Sri Lanka. The determination included a citation of the insights provided by LIRNEasia in a research article (2009) titled “Banded Forbearance: A New Approach to Price Regulation” compiled by LIRNEasia Chair Prof. Rohan Samarajiva and Policy Fellow Tahani Iqbal. The Telecommunications Amendment Bill, introduced by the Sri Lankan government in May, proposed several changes to the regulatory environment of the telecommunications sector. Several petitions were filed challenging various sections of the Bill. Petitioners also argued that the discretionary power to forebear tariffs as proposed by Section 6A (4) could be applied selectively, benefitting some providers over others potentially leading to market biases. In its determination, the Supreme Court extensively quoted from the work of Professor Samarajiva and Tahani Iqbal, particularly focusing on their analysis of tariff forbearance. Their analysis published in International Journal of Regulation and Governance in 2009, investigates the feasibility of regulating prices in telecom markets, focusing on approaches such as regulatory forbearance and asymmetric regulation. It then proposes a regulatory mechanism termed ‘banded forbearance’, derived from benchmark regulation and especially useful for regulating prices in microstates with … Continue reading Supreme Court cites LIRNEasia’s insights in Telecom Bill Determination