(HT)
Markets must work for the many and not just for the few, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said adding that sudden spike in online business and digital commerce globally have posed new challenges for competition watchdogs in protecting free markets.
Democratising the market principle is the key to safeguard the spirit of liberalisation, she added, referring to India’s policy shift in 1990s. “The enactment of the Competition Act in 2002 was a landmark reform in India’s journey from a centrally planned regime… to a market-driven one, and making the Competition Commission a key institution in safeguarding the spirit of liberalisation while checking its excesses,” the minister said at the 16th annual day celebration of the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The mandate of CCI under the act is threefold—to promote and sustain competition in markets, to protect the interests of consumers and ensure freedom of trade, and “most critically” to prevent practices having an adverse effect on competition, Sitharaman explained, adding that “competition drives efficiency, nurtures innovation and also benefits consumers”.
“Free and fair market actually ensures that no single player can corner resources, suppress choice or distort price discovery. This benefits our consumers,” the finance minister said. “Competition ensures that the voice of consumers, that is, the common people, matters and, therefore, businesses are forced to listen.”
“Prices fall not due to charity but because someone else is willing to offer the same product for less. Quality improves not due to sense of ethics but because mediocrity is punished by market forces and therefore in a competitive market the consumer becomes powerful not by assertion but by default,” Sitharaman said.
Emphasising on the role of CCI, the finance minister said its interventions play a significant role in creating an environment where enterprises big or small can compete on merit, where consumers are empowered with choices and where innovation and efficiency are rewarded. “For India, a nation of 1.4 billion people, ensuring free and fair market is not merely an economic need, it is a democratic one. Economies that embrace competition are by nature more dynamic and, therefore, CCI plays an important role in this backdrop to keep the competition alive in the markets.”
Sitharaman stressed on the ability of the Commission to strike a balance between regulatory vigilance and a pro-growth mindset, integral to building a “resilient, equitable and innovation-driven” economic framework in India as it aspires to become ‘Viksit Bharat’ by 2047.
