The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has issued an order to the CEOs and directors of eight private education institutions to provide information required for assessing allegations of anti-competitive practices - such as unreasonable increase in school fees and tying of products and services - against these schools.
Sources told Business Recorder here on Monday that the CCP has issued an order under Section 36 of the Competition Act, 2010 (the 'Act') to the CEOs and directors of the said private education institutions. The commission has taken lead as a regulator to seriously tackle the matter of increase in schools fees in public interest, going through all the pros and cons of the issue. Whenever the issue is in larger interest of consumers, the CCP doesn't hesitate to come into action to save them of monopolistic attitude.
The commission is working on solid evidence strictly in accordance with the law. The CCP is checking whether private educational institutions are involved in collusion or they are involved in abuse of dominance position.
The commission is legally empowered to impose fine up to Rs 1 million on each of the private education institution or could refer the cases to session judge for jail imprisonment, if required under relevant section of the Competition Act, 2010, the sources said. The CEOs and directors of private education institutes that have been issued the order are: The City School, Beaconhouse, Elementary Montessori School, Headstart School, Roots Millennium School, The Lahore ALMA, LACAS and Salamat School System. The institutes CEOs and their directors have been given a deadline until September 28, 2015 to supply the required information to the Commission, failing which the Commission will take the course of law.
The Commission is currently investigating into allegations of potential anti-competitive behaviour by private education institutions across Pakistan. The Commission received more than 1000 complaints from all over the country. Accordingly, over a 100 schools in various parts of the country were asked to provide relevant information vis-à-vis their fee structures, student strengths, reasons for increasing fees and allied charges, etc. Although many institutions responded with the requested information, others either did not or replied with incomplete and irrelevant information, despite repeated requests by the Commission.
As a consequence it deemed necessary to issue an order to such institutions under Section 36 of the Act. Section 36 empowers the Commission to issue a special or general order calling upon undertakings to furnish information that the Commission deems necessary or useful for discharging its functions as envisioned in the Act. Failure to provide the requisite information may make the CEOs and directors of these undertakings liable to strict penalties and other sanctions under Section 38 of the Act.
It is important to mention that the changes made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the CCP has enabled the commission to become ultra active and start taking forceful actions against the cartels and undertakings involved in deceptive marketing practices. In recent past, the federal government has appointed the CCP members on competitive basis, which in turn resulted in a number of inquiries and investigations against the involved units.
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