The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) would conduct assessment of the oil sector among 12-15 other sectors to detect consumer rights violations. This was stated by CCP Chairman Khalid A. Mirza at a seminar on "The Importance of a Competition Regime" held at a local hotel on Wednesday.
The seminar, which was attended by a large number of businessmen and others, was addressed by Alden F. Abbott, Director US Federal Trade Commission, Alberto Heimler, Director Competition Authority of Italy, Vinod Dhall, Chairman Competition Commission of India (CCI).
Finance Minister Syed Naveed Qamar, who was to be the chief guest at the seminar could not attend the program for "some unspecified reasons". The speakers, highlighting the importance of the competition regime in providing a legal framework for promoting a healthy business environment for the corporate sector and protecting consumer rights, apprised the gathering about introduction and implementation of the regime in their respective countries.
Chairman CCI Vinod Dhall said the competition commission in India had the ability to check cross-border irregularities having an inside impacts, for example, he said, New Delhi had allowed cement import from Pakistan after some irregularities were reported on the part of exporters from other countries.
He said that even if Pakistani cement exporters formed a cartel, CCI could tackle them. Dhall said there were market-friendly laws in India where the government's role was confined only to that of a referee who, he said, could only see the match and interfere when somebody commits a foul.
To a query on the delay in making the CCI operational, he said a prolonged judicial and parliamentary process had caused the delay and the commission, which was approved in 2003, would come into operation within the next few months.
He said socio-economic values must be taken into account when it comes to promulgation of competition laws in the developing countries, like India and Pakistan. Earlier, on the sideline of the seminar, Chairman CCI Vinod Dhall told newsmen that New Delhi and Islamabad would take stern action against those found in forming cartels in connection with the export of CNG buses from India to Pakistan.
To a query on the role of the international competition organisations against the state-run cartels, like Oil Producing and Exporting Countries (Opec), the speakers expressed their helplessness, and said "so much we can do and so much we cannot do."
Alden F. Abbott, Director US Federal Trade Commission, however, said such organisations were being curtailed through indirect means. Negating the widely held perception that the competition policy was primarily aimed at benefiting the consumers, Abbott said that the policy was equally important for the welfare of businessmen.
He said by adopting a commutation regime Pakistan, which introduced the competition laws in October last year, had become part of an international system and had put itself on the path of a gradual development.
Alberto Heimler, Director Competition Authority of Italy, terming the competition laws in Pakistan as substantial said that their enforcement should not be discretionary. Highlighting the importance of the competition laws, he said, the institutional infrastructure and the way to interpret these laws were equally significant.