16 June 2003
COMPETITION
COMMISSION TO KEEP FREE ENTERPRISE UNDER CHAINS
From
Jal Khambata
NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of
India that succeeds the Monopoly and Restrictive Trade Practices
Commission (MRTPC) to oversee mergers, acquisitions, amalgamations
and takeovers of the big corporate bodies came into being on Monday
with the appointment of two retiring bureaucrats as its chairman and
member-secretary.
Selection of other members of the Commission
will follow soon but it will become operational only from October 1,
the Commerce Ministry sources said. The MRTPC is to be wound up by
this year-end but that should not bring cheers to the free enterprise
as the Commission is a new mechanism to keep them under
chains.
Union Commerce Secretary Deepak Chatterjee takes over
as chairman of the new commission from September 16, with a tenure of
five years while Company Affairs Secretary becomes its
member-secretary from June 27 after his retirement. Special Power
Secretary MKK Saldhana, a 1968 batch IAS officer, is the new Company
Affairs Secretary.
The Commission will become opeational only
from October 1 after the chairman assumes the charge while the next
three months will be a trying time for Vinod Dhal to establish the
secretariat from scratch. The MRTPC office will provide him the
logistic support.
The Prime Minister approved Chatterjee's
name as the first chairman of the Commission from a panel of five
officials recommended bythe search committee headed by Union Law and
Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley. Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's
consent has been secured for the appointments, the PMO sources
said.
Over 100 large corporate houses who assets are more than
Rs 1000 crores or whose annual turnover is more than Rs 3000 crores
will come under the regulatory scrutiny of the commission, an Act for
which was passed in the winter session of Parliament last year.
As
per the government plans, the Commission will not start cracking whip
from day one as in becomes operational in three phases. The first
year would be focused on acquainting all market players to have a
clear understanding of the Competition Act. In the second year, it
will start looking into the trade practices that fall in the category
of anti-competition.
Mergers and acquisitions having an
adverse impact on competition will be regulated by the commission
only from the third year of its existence.
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