The government has formally tabled a Bill to amend the Competition Act of 2002, which seeks to give more edge to the Competition Commission of India (CCI), the country’s anti-trust watchdog; however it will have to be passed by both houses of Parliament before it comes into force.
The Act, once enforced, will give the CCI chairman direct powers to authorise its Director General to order search and seizure operations in which gathering evidence would be faster and that investigation would be kept confidential, while in the present case the commission’s investigation wing has to get the approval of a chief metropolitan magistrate for this. The DG is the investigating arm of the CCI that keeps a tab on anti-competitive practices in the marketplace.
The new Bill would make it mandatory for the competition panel to decide on corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A) within a stipulated time limit of 180 days from the current stipulation time limit of 210 days. CCI can currently only scrutinize M&As in which the combined turnover of the acquirer and the company being acquired is Rs 4,500 crore or more and Rs 1,500 crore or more in terms of assets.
Further the government has added a new part to Section 5 of the Act, which deals with business combinations of corporate entities and gives power to the central government to specify different values of assets and turnover for scrutinizing combinations.
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