M Veerappa Moily, Union corporate affairs minister, talks about some issues on his agenda to Santosh Tiwari. Edited excerpts:
What is the situation on the proposed National Competition Policy?
By December 2011, I would like the policy to be in place. We are holding consultations to concretise it. After which, the policy will be taken to the cabinet, so that it percolates to both the central ministries and the state governments. The provisions will deal with inflation, price manipulation and cartelisation. The Competition Act will be guided by the National Competition Policy. In the light of this policy, we would come out with suitable amendments in the Competition Act.
What about the Companies Act? It was slated to be introduced in the monsoon session (of Parliament).
The Bill was sent to the Cabinet two weeks earlier and is likely to be taken up soon. I hope the Bill will be through in the winter session.
Apprehension has been raised on the Right to Information Act, in the light of the recent controversy surrounding letters from the finance ministry to the prime minister concerning 2G licence allocation, acquired through the RTI. How should the government tackle this?
RTI should not be used to create mistrust between individuals and institutions. It is a weapon to strengthen and not destroy democratic institutions. There are people who want to destroy the government’s economic agenda and pull the country in different direction but checks on the use of RTI will not be good. This is a short-term problem and, ultimately, the water will find its own level. The government’s agenda is to weed out corruption and steps like the Public Procurement Policy and a strong Lok Pal Bill will help in achieving this objective.
What about the definition of ‘associate’ companies, which has cropped up in the 2G case?
As of now, there is no definition of associate companies in the Companies Act. I don’t have to add anything at this juncture.
