The government has identified Competition Law Authority in that country as a model competition law appropriate for the Indian environment, a government press release here said.

Union law, justice and company affairs minister Ram Jethmalani is on a visit to London to study the various aspects of the working of the competition law. The government had recently set up a nine-member committee under the chairmanship of a former commerce secretary SVS Raghavan to work out new laws to regulate operations of companies in the globalised scenario. The committee has already held one meeting and is required to submit its final report by early February.

Law ministry sources said the minister would confer with the chairman of the committee on his return to incorporate his views on the proposed legislations. The government proposes to introduce a bill on competition law in the budget session, scheduled to begin in the third week of February 2000. The legislative framework of competition law may entail a new law or appropriate amendments to the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969. The new law could involve changes in legal provisions and restrictive trade practices.