Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday urged the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to adopt a ‘free market’ approach and become a market-friendly regulator to help businesses recover from COVID-19’s adverse effects.
“Referring to the challenges of post-pandemic revival of enterprises, the Finance Minister stressed on the need for the CCI to proactively engage with industry so as to ensure that their legitimate claims are patiently heard while also making sure that knowingly or unknowingly, by omission or by commission market processes are not undermined,” the Corporate Affairs Ministry said in a statement.
The Minister, speaking at the competition watchdog’s annual day commemoration, said the CCI’s emphasis on creating a ‘trust-based system’ was important for economies like India that are still ‘transitioning to a free market’ economy.
But in view of the ‘ever-widening contours of the economy and the new-age India’, she urged the Commission to ‘evolve with the speed, scale and visionary look needed for the economy to thrive and for fair genuine market practices to flourish’.
As the CCI steps into ‘a more sturdy’ role, it should ‘progressively forward the cause and help free market to thrive, in letter and spirit’, Ms Sitharaman said.
