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Panel to submit draft Competition Bill to PM on Monday

The Committee on Competition Bill will submit its report to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on May 22, a day earlier than scheduled, and the bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of Parliament, Union Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ram Jethmalani said.

The draft bill was ready and it would be circulated for suggestions after the committee submitted the report, he said. He was addressing members of the Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Bangalore on Friday night.

Originally the report was to be presented on May 23 but it had been advanced by a day due to non availability of the Prime Minister on that day.

He said, the bill among other things, provides for prevention of all commercial and business activities that would prevent, restrict and distort competition. It was a complex subject and all anti-competitive agreement and market power would be outlawed by the bill.

The government would welcome suggestions before it was introduced in Parliament, he added.

Jethmalani said an authority, likely to be called the Fair Trade Competition Authority, would also be constituted.

Lamenting on non-passage of some important bills due to turbulent conditions in Parliament, he said the people should tell the members of Parliament to do serious work and avoid ugly things. A compact amendment bill to the Companies Act, which was investor-friendly and provided effective remedies for corporate fraud, could not be passed, he informed.

Mounting a scathing attack on the policies of the Communists and the Congress, Jethmalani said foreign investment should be allowed in all fields, except in defence and security matters.

The multinational companies would come on their terms and not on charity, he pointed out, and added that they would make investment in ventures that ensured good returns. There was need to create congenial atmosphere for them by providing clear answers to their questions.

Stating that the government should 'get out' where it could not function, he said a few would have to be sacrificed for the general good.

The government could not run business and bureaucrats could not be trusted. Bureaucratic incompetence and corruption should not be tolerated, he added.

UNI

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