The Competition Commission has decided to move faster in giving clearances to mergers and acquisition following concern that the limit of 210 days is too long a period when compared with practices prevalent in the US or European Union.
“We realise that the limit of 210 days for approval from the commission is considered long as in countries like the US, the prescribed period is 30 days. So we have set an internal standard of 45 days for those mergers which prima facie appear to have no appreciable adverse effect on competition. For cases, which need further investigation gathering, we would take another 65 days,” Competition Commission of India acting chairman Vinod Dhali said in Kolkata on Monday.
The 45-day limit would be the commission’s own internal standard and would not be binding on it, Dhali clarified while responding to queries of members of the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce.
The acting chairman is of the view that only a handful of mergers and combinations would have any adverse impact on market competition. The commission, he said, is empowered to revisit any merger approval even after a year if it appears that the process is distorting the market dynamics.