Cabinet clears changes in Competition Bill

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on Thursdaycleared amendments to the Competition Bill 2001 proposed by the Standing Committee on home affairs and the department of company affairs.
Among the amendments cleared are changes to the definition of “combination� for the purpose of determining the threshold limit for determining whether a merged entity would attract the scrutiny by Competition Commission of India. Information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters that the government would seek to introduce the amended bill and get it cleared during the current session.
She declined to divulge the details of the amendment, but said that the government was very keen to have the legislation in place, more so now that the divestment transactions were taking place which have implications for creation of monopolies. The Competition Bill proposes to regulate uncompetitive practices including abuse of dominance by monopoly enterprises. It does not, however, frown upon creation of monopolies. Once the Competition law comes into force, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act would be repealed and the MRTP commission wound-up.