Competition Commission rejects complaint against Mahagenco

NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission of India ( CCI) has rejected a complaint charging Maharashtra State Power Generation Co ( Mahagenco) of forming a cartel that allegedly engaged in collusive bidding for contract of liaison work for movement of coal.

The commission in an order, passed last week, said that "looked at from any angle", no case can be made of the entity violating competition norms.

As per the complaint, Mahagenco floats tenders for coal liasoning and subsequently cancels them for various assigned reasons and thereupon as a stop gap arrangements, work orders are issued to the opposite party contractors.

Besides Mahagenco, the complaint was filed against Nair Coal Services Ltd, Karam Chand Thapar & Bros and Naresh Kumar & Co.

Further, it was alleged that the opposite party contractors have distributed the markets inter se and make exorbitant quotations for their bids, the Commission noted.

The complaint was filed by one Surendra Prasad, a practising lawyer, according to the Commission.

However, in a minority order, CCI member S N Dhingra said the case was fit to be referred to its Director General (DG) for further investigation.