Higher notification fees, unnecessary bureaucratic delays in the approval of innocuous merger deals and possible conflict with market regulator Sebi?s takeover code could be some of the contentious clauses reopened for review by the Competition Commission of India following industry protests. Sources said that the commission is likely to meet industry bodies in a bid to clear the ensuing confusion followed after the CCI uploaded the draft notifications on its website last month.
Among the demands made by industry which could be reviewed by the CCI is to clearly define the notification fee that the concerned parties would have to pay to the commission. One of the proposals that the CCI has received is to fix the fee at 1% of the total deal size. If accepted this could come as a huge relief to the industry as the current fee structure is considered to be very high.
As per the draft regulations issued by the commission, the acquirer has to pay the CCI a sum of R10 lakh if the toal value of acquisition is less than R500 crore. ?There are some proposals that have been made which needs to be looked into,? a CCI source said.
Concerns have also been raised over the competition regulations being in conflict with market regulator Sebi?s takeover code. Since the code mandates the acquirer to pay interest to the shareholders if it fails to get the statutory approvals within 15 days, the CCI can take up to 30 days. Explains head competition law and policy at Vaish Associates MM Sharma, ?The problem here is that the CCI can take 30 days to clear a deal. What happens in that case? Either regulations have to clearly spell this out or else the takeover code would need to be changed?.
Chairman of the Assocham National Council on Competition Ramji Srinivasan said the commission should also exempt mandatory filing in those cases that fall under schedule 1 of the draft regulations.