Three captains - Rohit Sharma (Mumbai Indians), Virat Kohli (Bangalore) and Ajinkya Rahane (Rajasthan Royals) - have been fined 1.2 million Indian rupees ($17,290) each for over rate offences and De Villiers said the fines made little impact.
"There's a system in place whereby the captain is penalised if his team fails to maintain the required over rate while bowling," De Villiers wrote in a column in The Times of India.
"This involves a fine for the first offence followed by suspension but the impact of these measures appears minimal, roughly equivalent to the weight loss of an obese gentleman who orders two giant hamburgers and a diet Coke.
"One easy fix could be to reduce the break between innings from the current 20 minutes to a manageable 10 minutes."
Earlier this month, Sunrisers Hyderabad coach Tom Moody had suggested penalty on the team's net run rate - a rule enforced in the Caribbean Premier League - instead of monetary fine for slow over rates.
De Villiers said such drastic steps would only hurt the competition.
"Some have proposed larger fines, net run rate penalties and points deductions but the competition should not be distorted, De Villiers added.
"A less draconian approach may be more effective."
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)
