Competition Bill introduced

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, AUG. 6. The Competition Bill, 2001, introduced by the Union Law Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley, in the Lok Sabha today seeks to repeal the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act and covers prohibition of anti-competitive agreements.

Mr. Jaitley said that in the pursuit of globalisation, India had responded positively by opening up its economy, removing controls and resorting to liberalisation. The natural corollary of this was that the Indian market should be geared to face competition from within the country and outside, he said.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill, it seeks to provide for the establishment of a quasi-judicial body to be called the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which shall also undertake competition advocacy for creating awareness and imparting training on competition issues.

The Bill will cover prohibition of abuse of dominance, regulation of combinations such as acquisitions, mergers and amalgamation of certain sizes. The role of the Commission is to prevent practices having adverse effect on competition, to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of economic action of the participants in markets in India.

The proposed law will not apply to Government departments and enterprises performing sovereign functions and policy making aspects of Governmental activities and will provide for exemption of certain classes of enterprises and international agreements from the applicability of the legislation by way of specific notifications.

All pending cases pertaining to unfair trade practices other than those relating to tie in sales, pending with the MRTP Commission shall stand transferred to the National Consumer Commission constituted under the Consumer Protection Act.

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