Chairman D K Sikri, Competition Commission of India (CCI)

New Delhi, (IANS) : The Competition Commission of India (CCI) said on Friday the fair trade regulator the has disposed off about 80 per cent of the cases referred to it.

“More than 600 of 750 anti-trust cases handled by it till now have been disposed off,” CCI Chairman D.K. Sikri said at an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) conference on “Competition Law: Opportunities and challenges in India”.

“Of the information filed, now 80 per cent is not subject to any investigation as only 20 per cent cases go through the investigation stage. Unlike in the past when we undertook the investigation, in more than 50 per cent of the cases or informations filed with us we are now applying rigours of enquiry very-very strongly,” Sikri said.

He said that the CCI, in about past six months, had organised 40 events for promoting awareness in one way or the other amongst the people about the Competition Law, for all stakeholders and people to understand the scope of the law and the remedies it offers.

The CCI chief also said that the Competition Law is also helpful to the government when it comes to making public procurements. Cases of collusive bidding as well as cartelisation have come to the Commission from various departments of the government, state governments and public sector enterprises, they have been investigated, he added.

He said that this change has the potential to bring about considerable savings in the public procurement by the government as it constitutes 30 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He said that competition compliance must go beyond being made a formality, it should be formalised and imbibed as an article of faith by all the businesses in the country.

“We have recently embarked upon and are preparing a competition compliance manual which is comparable to international standards and are taking the help of legal fraternity in preparing this,” he said.

He also said that the Commission is not in favour of imposing penalties as they have to be rational and proportional.

“We do not favour it and we do not want this to be imposed, we will advocate and favour more and more compliance which is in the best interest of Indian economy,” Sikri said.

Sunil Kanoria, President, Assocham in his address pointed out the monetary fines imposed by CCI on various sectors as a major concern.

“In most cases these fines are hefty and invariably corporates usually opt to challenge such claims, which results in lengthy litigations. In almost 97 per cent cases, either the penalty gets stayed or is sent back for fresh investigation,” Kanoria said.