Govt asks companies to ensure fair trade practices

Corporate affairs minister Sachin Pilot on Thursday said that the companies should ensure fair trade practices in their markets and restrain from anti-competitive activities that hurt consumers.

"If we work with that objective in mind as to how to protect the interest of the consumer, having a competition programme is the way forward," Pilot said while meeting the officials of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and senior executives of companies here.

He stressed that companies need to ensure that consumers are not burdened by the anti-competitive practices that are taking place in certain sectors. The meeting comes against the backdrop of increasing complaints against companies abusing their dominant market position or engaging in anti-competitive practices.

"We have many sectoral regulators and we have CCI but they must talk to each other at the appropriate time," Pilot said.

Noting that the ministry is working on a National Competition Policy, Pilot said that some quarters have expressed difficulties in accessing the domain of the government run companies.

Ashok Chawla, chairman, CCI, said that corporates should set up a competition compliance committee to review the level of compliance with the competition policy.

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