By IANS,
Kolkata : Describing the proposed national competition policy as the second financial revolution, that would also bring down foodgrain prices, Corporate Affairs Minister M. Veerappa Moily Monday hoped the document will get cabinet approval by next month.
“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 impacts 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 thing to combat inflation,” said Moily.
The minister said that in India due to the cascading effect expected under the proposed policy, foodgrain prices will come down substantially.
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 we will circulate the new amended competition act, in the light of the new competition policy, to all the ministries. Simultaneously, 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.