FM urges CCI to look at global developments impacting India

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday urged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to consider global developments having an impact on the country as physical borders no longer determine the competition for consumers.

"I would say the Competition Commission 2.0 should look at what is developing globally and which already is having an impact on us," she said while speaking at an event to mark the completion of CCI's 10 years.

"Physical borders no longer determine the competition within a country. In that way, I think we are dealing with not-fair play as it is. You are dealing with an entity which is outside, probably legally complying with many of the requirements in jurisdictions where they exist, but having an unfair impact here on consumers positively and probably unfairly most times," said Sitharaman.

"And that abuse is being felt by Indian consumers who probably are not even exposed to many other aspects of competition in that particular activity. I would think it is just the right thing on which Competition Commission would play a suo-moto role, take a position and probably even direct the government towards what it has to deal with," the Finance Minister said.

Competition without frontier is capturing the globe. "Even in the G20, the discussions today are going into saying how would you define operations, how would you define profits or turnovers which are getting generated in a geographically physical area where one doesn't operate," she said.

Sitharaman said the CCI must keep itself abreast with new developments in global trade and ensure that domestic compes do not face abuse of dominance from global compes.

( With inputs from ANI )