The IMF acknowledges CCP’s improvement in market enforcement.

The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has made important actions to identify market bottlenecks, entry hurdles, and deficiencies in the legal and regulatory framework, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Fund has also noted that in recent years, the CCP has improved its ability to enforce the law.

According to a statement released here on Tuesday, the IMF’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic Report highlighted that the competition authorities must take more aggressive and efficient action to address shortcomings in business regulations at different sectoral levels.

In addition to increasing enforcement, the CCP has settled over 200 cases and retrieved an unprecedented sum of fines and penalties, according to the IMF. The CCP spokeswoman clarified, however, that the Commission has secured decisions on 428 out of 567 cases, reducing its backlog of court cases by about 70%.

The research also pointed out that the CCP’s recently formed Market Intelligence Unit (MIU) is a significant advancement for early identification of market manipulation and collusion.

The IMF claims that the MIU can contribute to the swift abolition of anti-competitive activities and the establishment of true deterrence if it is supported by strict enforcement.

The paper emphasises that the Commission should identify market entrance hurdles and competition bottlenecks caused by regulatory procedures, in addition to the CCP’s continuous efforts to foster a level playing field across diverse sectors, such as releasing Policy Notes.

After that, the Commission might offer solutions by sending policy notes and recommendations to the pertinent ministries and organisations.

According to the report, Pakistan has a contemporary competition statute that gives the competition authority the jurisdiction to deal with a variety of anti-competitive acts.

The report also stated that ongoing improvements in staffing, resources, and processes are required to guarantee the prompt enforcement of CCP rulings.

The CCP spokeswoman stated that the government has given the Commission full support in accomplishing its objectives when questioned about the IMF’s findings. In order to expedite the outcome of court proceedings, the government promptly appointed the Competition Appellate Tribunal’s (CAT) chairman and members.

He claimed that for the past two years, the Commission has experienced a significant change. After removing the obstacles to litigation, CCP was able to obtain PKR 1.01 billion in penalties, as opposed to just PKR 200 million during the preceding 15 years.

He continued by saying that the CCP has stepped up its efforts to combat deceptive marketing and has fined large companies in the real estate, automotive, dairy, and educational sectors, in addition to imposing fines of over PKR 9 billion on cartel activity.