IPCL divestment by Feb

IPCL divestment by Feb
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI, DECEMBER 17: The strategic disinvestment of state-owned IPCL may be completed before the enactment of the newly drafted competition laws, which would aim at curbing monopolistic formations in the corporate sector.

Union law and justice minister Ram Jethmalani said on Friday that the draft bill on the competition laws will be placed in Parliament during the budget session. The successful suitor to IPCL, on the other hand, is likely to be named in February before the crucial bill is cleared.

``We will not allow pernicious monopolies to come into existence. Monopolistic practices will be treated as criminal offences,'' he said during his inaugural address at `India Calling,' an overseas Indians' conference organised by the Indian Merchants Chamber (IMC) here.

The competition law would provide a formal legal framework to this outlook of the government, and the ministry was currently working on the bill, he said.

``The bill is aimed at creating a free and fair market. The theory is that competitionwill bring down prices, as opposed to monopolies which jack them up,'' he said.

Welcoming enhanced participation of overseas Indians in the economic affairs of the country, Jethmalani said the government was considering the matter of offering dual citizenship to non-resident Indians (NRIs).

``I am for dual citizenship to overseas Indians. We will have to sit and draft a dual citizenship bill,'' he said.