Make competition commission functional: analysts

Consumers in Bangladesh have failed to reap the benefit of fair prices of commodities because of a lack of a functional competition commission, analysts said yesterday.

They spoke at a workshop on “Competition commission for economic growth and fair price” jointly organised by the Bangladesh Competition Commission, the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) and British Council in the capital's Cirdap auditorium.

The commission was formed in 2012 mainly to ensure a fair competition, but it started functioning in 2016, said Selim Raihan, executive director of the SANEM, a research organisation.

On the other hand, consumers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and South Africa have immensely benefited from such commissions thanks to the presence of stricter laws, Raihan said.

In these countries, the imposition of big fines for malpractices helped a lot to arrest the abnormal price hike of commodities as the body can take actions against any unholy business syndication, the economist said. He urged the media and the civil society to raise awareness about the commission so that no syndicate can make a hefty profit through malpractices, thus putting a strain on consumers. The government has not yet approved the organogram of the commission, said Md Iqbal Khan Chowdhury, chairperson of the body.  So, the commission is suffering from a lack of human resources and has failed to run full-fledged operations, he explained.

He said the organogram of the commission is on the table of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. “We expect it to be approved this year.” If any individual or a business entity thinks that they have been cheated by any kind of malpractices they can lodge complaints with the commission, he said. “The body will take action after examining the cases.”

Chowdhury said the commission is now dealing with two cases where two companies have complained against each other over malpractices. But he did not mention their names.

The chairperson, however, said the commission does not have anything to do with abnormal price hike of goods and market monitoring.

He said in the law there is no certain ceiling for dominance in a particular market or trade of any particular product by any particular company.

But, if the commission finds any unlawful business practice, it would take measures against the wrongdoers, he said.

Shawkat Ali Waresi, deputy team leader of PROKAS, a project of British Council, said they are working in some important issues in Bangladesh such as labour migration, climate change, paperless trade, and raising awareness about the harmful production of contaminated poultry feeds.