‘CCI watched silently when airfares rose’

New Delhi, April 28

A parliamentary panel has pulled up the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for watching silently airlines charging exorbitant fares during the recent Jat agitation in Haryana and at the time of making last-minute bookings.

Besides, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has sought to know the preparedness of the government to "proactively intervene" in instances of cartelisation, price parallelism and abuse of dominance, especially in the wake of new business models such as electronic and mobile commerce.

In a report tabled in Parliament today, the panel said it took up the case of airlines charging exorbitant fares during the recent agitation in Haryana and also from passengers reserving their seats at the eleventh hour.

"The CCI, which is empowered to examine anti-competitive conduct, not only in India but also on acts taking place outside the country, watched silently and only now, on being pointed out, has woken up and informed that the issue of abnormal rise in airfare is currently under the consideration of the commission," it noted.

The panel said it would like to be apprised of the outcome in the case at the earliest.

In February, during the Jat agitation, the price of air tickets for flights in certain routes from Chandigarh was exorbitantly high for sometime. The committee, headed by Congress leader Veerappa Moily, has made the observations in its report on the Demand for Grants (2016-17) of the Corporate Affairs Ministry. — PTI