The Chairman of the Competition Commission of India, Mr Ashok Chawla's view that bank mergers should be kept outside the purview of the competition commission, aligns with that of the Standing Committee of Finance.
“We had given our opinion earlier. Our opinion at that time was and it continues to be that maybe there is a case for keeping bank mergers outside….where some weak bank or failing bank is going to be acquired by a healthy bank,” he told Business Line .
The Committee's report on the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2011, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha recently, proposed keeping bank mergers out of the purview of the CCI. But it states that this exemption should be considered as a special case and revisited after the regulators gain a little experience.
“While accepting the proposal in the Bill to exempt bank mergers, the Standing Committee on Finance has, however, recommended that the proposal could be revisited at a later date,” said Mr Chawla.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of the Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE) on corporate governance in central public sector enterprises on Wednesday.
“Ultimately, corporate governance should go beyond technical and regulatory compliances,” said Mr Chawla.
“Corporate governance and competition laws are two sides of the same coin,” he said.