The Competition Commission of India on Friday dismissed a complaint alleging that banking giant State Bank of India abused its dominant market position in West Bengal.
The competition watchdog in an order noted that SBI's market share in MSME loan category was around 11 per cent in 2018-19 and several other national-level banks were present in West Bengal.
West Bengal-based Sainath Autolinks Pvt Ltd who is a dealer of Maruti Suzuki had filed the complaint against SBI.
Sainath had opened a supply chain finance unit (SCFU) account with the public sector lender in 2011, the order noted.
After a reconciliation and audit exercise undertaken by the bank with respect to the SCFU account for the financial year 2013-14, it was found that one credit entry had been captured twice and one debit entry had been missed and Sainath was liable to pay a sum of Rs 2.13 crore.
In this regard, the complainant said that the terms and conditions of the letter of arrangement are unfair, discriminatory and favours the bank. Besides, the automobile dealer alleged that the lender is in a dominant position in the banking sector and it has abused its position.
The complainant requested the fair trade regulator to declare the demand of Rs 2.13 crore as illegal and also asked for the reimbursement of the disputed amount along with 24 per cent interest per annum, among others.
However, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) noted that "market share of OPs (opposite parties) in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) loan category in State of West Bengal for the period 2018-19 is around 11 per cent. Furthermore, banking sector in West Bengal seems to be characterized with presence of several national level banks such as State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank ..."