Yesterday, TRAI gazetted its order on telephone tariff dated March 9, while Jagmohan had announced in Parliament that the Government had asked TRAI to keep it in abeyance.

Jagmohan, who is keen to clip TRAI's wings, is also expected to point out that pressure from the Bharatiya Janata Party's allies such as the Trinamool Congress' Mamata Banerjee forced the Government to ask TRAI not to implement its tariff proposals, so it is only fair that the co-ordination committee also be consulted on it -- this is, in any case, scheduled for day- after-tomorrow.

Sources in the PMO, however, pointed out that TRAI had already notified its tariff order and it would send wrong signals if this was`de-gazetted'. Besides, they add, the tariffs that Jagmohan is objecting to are only indicative of the ceiling amount. Government-owned telecom organisations such as the Department of Telecommunications and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited are free to set their rates a little lower than this ceiling.

If this line of thinking prevails, PMO officials who were perturbed at Jagmohan getting his way at the Group on Telecom (GoT) meeting earlier this week, will be pleased as punch.

A related development likely to strengthen Jagmohan's stand is that members of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee such as Nilotpal Basu have sought an emergency meeting with the Communications minister -- a fact that Jagmohan is likely to place before the Cabinet tomorrow.

While giving its opinion to TRAI, the Consultative Committee had pointed out that the tariff hikes they had proposed in their Consultation Paper were too steep and the related slashing in ISD and STD rates would hit DoT badly. This, in turn, would upsetits plans to expand telephone networks, especially in rural areas.

While tomorrow's Cabinet meeting is supposed to discuss only the recommendations of the GoT on the New Telecom Policy (NTP) and the issue of whether license fee concessions should be given to existing private sector players, the TRAI issue is expected to dominate the meet.

Sources say that on the day there was a furore in Parliament on the telephone tariff issue, Jagmohan had come prepared with a Cabinet note to quash tariff hikes after consultations with the PM and it was decided to put the tariff order on hold at a meeting attended by Cabinet ministers including P R Kumaramangalam, Yashwant Sinha, Pramod Mahajan and Jaswant Singh. Now that TRAI has overturned the Government's desire, Jagmohan is likely to put the onus on the PM to address the issue.

Another issue that will emerge at the meeting is the exact role of TRAI and its powers. Jagmohan has got the GoT to agree that TRAI would have no power to adjudicate disputes betweentelecom companies and the Government on licensing issues -- TRAI's adjudicatory powers are to be restricted to disputes between telecom companies, whether Government- or privately-owned.

The only point regarding TRAI's powers on which Jagmohan is likely to seek the Cabinet's approval is that in policy issues, including tariffs, while there should ideally be a consultation process between the Government and TRAI, in case of a divergence in opinion, the Government's authority should be final.