Federal government has directed the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to aggressively pursue against the cartelisation in different sectors of economy and devise a mechanism to check the cartels on all commodities. This decision was taken in a meeting held here on Saturday with Minister for Finance, Economic Affairs and Privatisation Syed Naveed Qamar in the chair.
The meeting referred the matter of oil, sugar, fertilisers and compressed natural gas (CNG) cartels to CCP, for an aggressive action. Syed Naveed Qamar asked the CCP Chairman Khalid Mirza to devise an effective plan to check the cartels of all other commodities to benefit the end consumer/common man and to get improved services for the masses in an environment of healthy competition.
He said that the government was fully committed to strengthen the functioning of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) in the larger public interest and its services would be fully utilised with an ability to carry out surprise checks to detect various cartels and termed the CCP an implementing arm of the government.
CCP Chairman Khalid Mirza briefed the participants of the meeting about the composition and functioning of the organisation, and said that CCP would focus to prohibit abuse of dominant position, agreements or deceptive market practices of all such anti-competitive practices that prevent, restrict or distort competition in the relevant market including predatory pricing, tie-ins, boycotting, making cartels or any attempt to threaten the competitive process.
He further said that the CCP role was confined to enhancing economic efficiency by acting against anti-competitive practices in all sectors and it should not be viewed as usurping the important functions of sector specific regulators. "Our target is to promote free competition in all spheres of commercial and economic activity and to enhance economic efficiency and to protect consumers from anti-competitive behaviour," he added.
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