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After cement and civil aviation, it is agriculture, paper and steel sectors which have caught the Competition Commission's attention.
The Commission has initiated market specific studies on these sectors, to outline and identify competitive concerns.
“It is not as if we suspect cartelisation at this stage but there could be market imperfections or distortions…The study will help identify competitive concerns, if any,” Competition Commission of India (CCI) outgoing Chairman, Mr Dhanendra Kumar, told reporters here.
Mr Kumar said if the studies threw up any “competitive concerns” that needed correction, the CCI could take suo motu action. He said suo motu action has been initiated in the past in specific cases involving air fares, cement, sugar, tyres and onion prices.
The studies are likely to be completed in about 45 days. Mr Kumar indicated that more sectors could be taken up in future, but did not name the sectors.
Crisil will undertake studies on paper and steel industries.
On the back of spurt in food inflation in recent months, the spotlight has been on the issue of price volatility in agricultural commodities, agricultural market structures and market efficiency. This has prompted CCI to initiate study in this sector.
CCI felt that the recent price spikes, in certain instances, could not be explained fully by demand-supply fundamentals. That, in turn, underscored the need to study the market structures and pin down the real causes of volatility in agricultural commodities.
The study on “market structures for agricultural commodities in India” (with particular focus on onion markets) will be done by the Institute for Social and Economic Change.
The purpose of the study is to capture the supply side dynamics for select agricultural commodities; the structure, degree and nature of market competition at each stage of supply chain; functioning of mandies, process of price discovery, and identification of competition and efficiency bottlenecks.
moumita@thehindu.co.in
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