Amid the telecom tariff wrangle in the post IUC regime, Telecom Minister Arun Shourie said on Tuesday that TRAI would have to 'balance' various aspects while examining the tariff proposals, and expressed the hope that the issue would be sorted out soon.

"So many things have to be balanced. If, on the one side, you allow firms to go under, you will have a situation where the sector as a whole will become unattractive for further investment, which is not good. On the other side, if you sustain every inefficient firm, then you will certainly not get the best out of them as they will perform only upon the fear of death," Shourie said, referring to the ongoing tariff issues in the sector.

"So there are many imponderables (before the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)," said Shourie, who talked to reporters after meeting with IBM chief executive officer Samuel J Palmisano.

Shourie's comment came in the wake of TRAI scrutinising the WLL and cellular tariff packages of operators, and seeking clarifications from them in certain cases.

"TRAI has to balance some guiding principles as against micro-management. If they examine every element of every package (about 600 of them), it would be difficult. On the other hand, if there is an element which is uncompetitive it is TRAI's duty to spot that," he said.

Replying to a query as to whether TRAI should have scrutinised the tariffs before May 1 when the IUC regime came into force in order to avoid confusion, Shourie strongly denied that there was any confusion amongst subscribers and said, "This happens in competition."

Virtually coming out in support of the telecom regulator's approach in examining telecom tariffs, Shourie said TRAI was trying to find out the principles which should guide assessment of different tariff plans.

In the same breath, he said that not every competitive offer could be regarded as a predatory offer.

Asked if the regulator should prescribe a ceiling in tariffs, Shourie said that the standard package was, in some ways, a ceiling. He, however, favoured having a slew of telecom tariff packages, saying that any cap on the number of proposals would not be in the interest of consumers.

He said that the tariff issues would be sorted out soon.

Shourie expressed hope that TRAI would find 'MTNL's new proposals satisfactory.' He said that TRAI had not rejected the entire proposal, but had made a suggestions on one aspect of the plan.