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The commission is also looking at the coal and fertiliser sectors, where government-owned companies dominate the market.
“Law does not distinguish between government and private companies,” said Ashok Chawla, chairman of CCI, addressing the annual global investor conference here of Kotak Institutional Equities. “After the government clarified that it does not have a role to play in petrol pricing after deregulation, we have taken up the issue.”
The notices will be sent to Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in the next couple of days, said Chawla on the sidelines of the conference.
The CCI also believes the practice of under-recovery in which the government compensates the OMCs for selling diesel at less-than-the market price is not fair. “We are taking the route of advocacy with the government for such issues,” said Chawla. Unlike petrol prices, diesel is still regulated by the government and under-recovery makes marketing of diesel for private companies unviable.
CCI became fully functional only in 2009, though the Competition Act under which it was established was passed in 2002. The regulator slapped fines totalling Rs 6,304 crore on 11 cement companies in June last year, after finding them guilty of cartelisation. It also imposed a penalty of Rs 630 crore on real estate giant DLF for abusing its dominant position. And, it had probed the aviation sector but said it could find no evidence for the charge.
The regulator has also been in the news because of its conflict of interest with other regulators, such as the Reserve Bank of India and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. This is because mergers and acquisition falls under its jurisdiction, to ensure competition survives in the market and dominance is not abused.
“Whatever ambiguity was there on this issue has been resolved, with the government taking a clear view,” said Chawla.
