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CCI ‘watched silently’ as airfares rose exorbitantly, says Parliament panel
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has pulled up the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for watching silently airlines charging exorbitant fares during the recent Jat agitation in Haryana and also from passengers in general who have to make last-minute bookings.
In a report tabled in Parliament on Thursday, the committee sought to know the government’s preparedness to proactively intervene in instances of cartelisation, price parallelism and abuse of dominance especially in the wake of new business models such as electronic and mobile commerce.“CCI, which is empowered to examine anti-competitive conduct not only in India but also on acts taking place outside India, watched silently and only now on being pointed, CCI has woken up and has informed that the issue of abnormal rise in airfare is currently under consideration of the Commission,” the report states. The committee said that it would like to be apprised of the outcome in the case at the earliest.
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In February, during the Jat agitation, the price of air tickets in certain routes from Chandigarh was exorbitantly high for some time. Earlier, there have been concerns expressed from various quarters, including from parliamentarians, that air tickets were priced very high during certain periods. The committee added that it would like to be apprised of the ministry’s efforts in a system which can proactively intervene in cases of cartelisation, price parallelism and abuse of dominance especially when new business models like e-rail, e-commerce and m-commerce will come.
Further, the committee has sought to know preparation of CCI as a watchdog to intervene where the government has/will allow 100-per cent foreign direct investment in e-commerce in the interest of consumers. According to the report, CCI has received 680 cases and out of them, 582 have been decided, 49 are pending and 69 are stated to be under consideration of the Commission. Of the 377 merger filings received, decisions have been taken only with respect to 353 cases. Taylor Hall Womens Jersey
