NEW DELHI: The Indian Telecommunications Bill 2022 will significantly bring down the cases of cyber fraud in the country, said telecom ministry Ashwani Vaishnaw on Friday. The minister while talking on the telecom Bill said the main thrust of the Bill is to protect users; therefore, it has KYC obligation.
“The Prime Minister has clearly directed us, in the Bill of telecommunications, users protection should be on priority and to bring down the cyber fraud cases. Thus, we are working on multiple dimensions to address this issue. That’s why we have the KYC (know your customer) obligation in the Bill,” said the minister.
The minister said the first fundamental thought in the Bill is about protection of users and every consumer has the right to know who is making the call. The government believes this will help prevent cyber frauds done using telecom services. Therefore, provisions related to identity have been included in the Bill.
“Users also need protection from calls that they want to avoid. The Bill enables a legal framework for preventing harassment of users from unsolicited calls and messages,” reads the explanatory note of the Bill.
India is prone to cybercrime and it reported 52,974 cases of cybercrime in 2021, an increase of over 5% from 2020 (50,035 cases) and over 15% from 2019 (44,735 cases). According to the government data, 70% of the cybercrime cases were reported from Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Assam, the report showed.
“A person who is receiving a call should know who the caller is. It includes all kinds of calls, be it a normal voice call, WhatsApp call, Facetime or any other OTT call. Distinction between a voice and data call has disappeared. KYC needs to be done for all the platforms and the services have to come under the same law,” Vaishnaw added.