CCI needs to ensure Indian cos are not subject to abuse from overseas entities: Sitharaman

NEW DELHI: Finance and corporate affairs minister Nirmala Sitharaman called on the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to take more proactive steps to protect Indian consumers as well as defend local firms from abuse by companies based abroad in the context of the “new economy”. Sitharaman was speaking at an event commemorating 10 years of competition law enforcement by the CCI.

Pointing to the challenges faced by the competition regulator, Sitharaman said the CCI needed “to protect the consumer but yet ensure that Indian enterprises are not going to be subject to excessive abuses from companies which exist somewhere else and do not submit themselves to Indian law”.

The minister added that the impact of “competition sans frontiers” was being felt by domestic consumers and encouraged the CCI to lead the way by taking up cases suo moto and even guiding the government on how to deal with challenges related to the new economy.


Sitharaman said the government was trying to address the issue of companies that were making a turnover and earning profits in India but were located in other jurisdictions. “So, if that is the way global competition is evolving, whose impact is so much on us that we are still probably wondering as to how we are going to rein in that kind of, if I may use the word, abuse,” said the minister.

Sitharaman lauded the CCI for its “remarkable performance with restraint, not obstructing competition but also acting as a good watchdog”.

Minister of state for finance and corporate affairs Anurag Singh Thakur also emphasised the need for balance in competition regulation, saying: “Neither must the regulator be too soft nor too stringent to kill innovation and disrupt emerging business models.” Injeti Srinivas, the secretary of the ministry of corporate affairs, contrasted the approach of the CCI with that of its predecessor, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC).

“The MRTPC as a pre-liberalisation institution worked on the principle of suspicion, control and restriction while the CCI seeks to promote and sustain competition,” said Srinivas.