Competition regulator uses informants to break cartel

Experts warn leniency programme will take medium- to long-term to be successful

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) says it has started trying to break a cartel by getting information from the latter’s members.

Section 46 of the CCI Act has a provision called a “leniency programme”, not used till recently. This allows the waiving of or imposing of less penalty on parties to a cartel which inform about it.

For the first time, CCI had used this provision for its inquiry, on the basis of information from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), regarding alleged cartelisation with respect to tenders floated by the railways and BEML, also a government-owned entity, for supply of