Regulators shouldn't contradict each other: CCI chief

Ashok Chawla says regulators' actions should not result in unnecessary burden on economy

Regulators' functions should not contradict each other and their actions should not result in unnecessary burden on economy, Competition Commission Chairman Ashok Chawla today said.

Chawla also asserted that the Competition Commission of India (CCI) mainly looked at operational behaviour of entities in the market place.

In recent times, there have been concerns that different sectoral regulators trespassing each other's jurisdictions.

"The sectoral regulator and the market regulator, in this case the CCI, should function in a manner which does not contradict each other and which should not lead to unnecessary regulatory burden," Chawla said at an event organised by Public Affairs Forum of India in association with J Sagar Associates and Genesis Burson -Marsteller.

According to Chawla, in India, different businesses and industries have their own individual sectoral regulators with mandate to look at various aspects such as technical, licensing and tariff issues for ensuring orderly and healthy growth of respective sectors.

On a question as to whether there should be a regulator of regulators in India, he said: "I don't think there is any talk of regulator of regulators in India except for the financial sector where there has been some discussion on this aspect."

"... There is no possibility, no discussion on regulator of regulators in the Indian economy," he added.

In response to a query on the impact of foreign regulators' decisions on some Indian companies, Chawla said that every regulator, including foreign ones, look at behaviour of enterprises in their respective countries.

Every regulator will look at what his mandate is at the law. "So, foreign regulators are looking at the behaviour of enterprises at those country so they will look at that point of view," he added.

"Regulators here are neither entitled to nor expected to focus on what are the concerns of regulators across the country and as businesses become global and as operations extend to all parts of the world different regulators will look at the same activity from their points of view," Chawla said.