'Fair competition is answer to many problems'

Q&A: Dhanendra Kumar, chairman, CCI

Dhanendra Kumar, chairman of the country’s antitrust body Competition Commission of India (CCI), is a busy man nowadays. He wants to have the Commission fully functional at the earliest. A former executive director of the World Bank and an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, Kumar tells Sapna Dogra Singh in an interview that competition can spur best practices in economy and technology.

What are your priorities as CCI chairman?
My first priority is to undertake competition advocacy in a big way so as to create awareness about competition and its beneficial impact on all stakeholders. Fair competition is answer to many problems as it spurs the best practices in economy and technology.

 

The second priority is to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade. We need to prevent practices like cartelisation that can have a detrimental effect on markets.

What action would CCI take on the alleged cartelisation among low-cost airlines over fixing of airfares?
I can’t answer this at this juncture. The CCI will first get the relevant data and then take any action, if required.

It has been said that it would take at least six months for CCI to become fully operational.
The Commission will be fully operational within a couple of months. Things are in a fast-track mode, including the appointment of two more members and hiring of 187-odd professionals. The government is also playing a proactive role in this. The Commission has already got three members including me, while two are expected to join before month-end. We held our first formal meeting on March 2 and since then we have been meeting regularly.

When will these 187 professionals be appointed?
We have already sent a requisition to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, which is finalising the rules for the appointment of these officials. It is expected any time soon. The moment it is done, we will fast-track the appointments of 38 officials. These appointments will be done by inviting existing government officials on deputation, besides university professors and experts.

What about the competition appellate tribunal?
The government is working on it as well and it is also expected to come up soon. It is essential to have an appellate tribunal to which appeals against CCI can be made.

Will the officials of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission be eligible to join CCI?
Well, they have to apply first and if found suitable they can join CCI.

And what about the enforcement activities?
The government is also finalising the rules for enforcement provisions of the CCI Act, which are likely to be notified shortly.

MRTPC doesn’t have much power to penalise companies, only to issue a cease-and-desist order. What kind of powers does CCI have?
The Commission, once fully operative, has enough powers. These include inquiring into instances of abuse of dominance by vested corporate interests wielding enormous clout over all levels of government.

Besides the cease-and-desist order, the Commission can direct any enterprise or person or their associations to discontinue with their anti-competitive practice, by impose penalty up to 10 per cent of the turnover, which can go up to the higher of three times of the profit or 10 per cent of the turnover for each year of cartelisation.

It can modify any agreement or direct an enterprise to abide by its orders. It can order division of an enterprise which enjoys dominant position, in order to prevent abuse of such position.