The Ministry of Railways has topped the list of cartelisation charges in the infrastructure sector with four cases investigated by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) in the last five financial years up to March 13 this year.

This was followed by two each in coal and iron and steel, and one each in power and aviation sectors during the period, according to a written statement of given by the Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha today.

Sitharaman apprised the house that the CCI has inked pacts with serval countries for co-operation in the field of competition law and policy and enforcement co-operation.

“The CCI has signed bilateral/multilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Egypt, Mauritius, Japan, Brazil, BRICS, Canada, European Commission, Australia and United States Department of Justice (DOJ) for cooperation in the field of competition law and policy. These MOUs include provision for enforcement cooperation between CCI and its MoU partners, subject to their respective legal framework, constraints, enforcement interests and available resources,” the statement said.

“The Commission has a Division for trend analysis and conducting research in various sectors of the economy to have a holistic view and to detect any anti-competitive activities,” the statement added.

In her reply, the Finance Minister also pointed to the concept of "lesser penalty plus" in the Competition Amendment act, 2023 which enshrines the mechanism to incentivize disclosures of cartels. “The LPP mechanism was introduced to incentivize an existing lesser penalty applicant in respect of a cartel to give full, true, and vital disclosures about another cartel, hitherto not in the knowledge of the CCI,” said the minister.