Thaindian News

Kolkata, Feb 6 (IANS) A proposed national competition policy, which is slated to get cabinet approval by next month, will help bring a financial revolution in the country and will be “excellent” in combating inflation, union Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily Monday said.

“We have a competition law that came into existence in 2009. We don’t have a national competition policy, which is quite important. The competition law is just a segment of that larger canvas of a national competition policy,” Moily told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here.

“The national competition policy has been crafted in such a way that it is going to be the second biggest financial revolution in the country after 1991. Now the competition policy is being circulated among all the ministries and hopefully it will be approved by the cabinet by March,” said Moily.

He said that the committee constituted under Dhanendra Kumar on the issue had given its report and two national consultations had been held with all the stakeholders on the basis of the document.

Underlining the positive impact expected from the national competition policy on the economy, he said: “The national competition policy has lots of benefits, because all the monopolies and anti-competitive forces have to be dismantled.”

He referred to the US and said because of the national competition policy there the price of petroleum products had halved.

“It is an excellent way to combat inflation,” said Moily.

The minister said in India the proposed policy will help bring down foodgrain prices substantially.

“Without affecting the productivity of a company the prices can come down. The competition policy is not one time thing or one slot thing, it has a lot of cascading effect. In totality the prices will come down, for example the foodgarins. In some states it is available in plenty and in some states there is a deficit,” Moily said.

He also said that the Dhanendra Kumar committee had also been asked to propose amendments to the competition act in the light of the upcoming competition policy.

“We have already drafted and will circulate the new amended competition act, in the light of the new competition policy, to all the ministries. When the competition policy is approved by the cabinet, it will also approve the new amendments to the competition act. And hopefully we will bring it in the budget session (of parliament),” said Moily.

However, eminent economist Dipankar Dasgupta said the proposed national competition policy will not help to bring down the prices of foodgrains.

“I don’t agree with this. It can bring down the prices of industrial products but it is not possible in the case of
foodgrains,” Dasgupta said.