New Delhi: The government is believed to
have approved the appointment of former finance secretary
Ashok Chawla as the new chairman of the Competition Commission
of India (CCI).
According to sources, the Appointments Committee of
Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Chawla as head
of the anti-trust body.
The other contenders for the post were Anurag Goel, a
member in the Commission, and Vijay Sharma, former secretary
in the environment and forests ministry.
When contacted, Chawla said he has not received any
formal communication yet. "It usually takes 2-3 days for ACC
orders to be notified," he said.
The CCI chairman post has been lying vacant for four
months now. The appointment assumes significance as after June
1, all high-value merger and acquisition (M&A) deals have
begun coming under the purview of the Commission.
A Gujarat-cadre IAS bureaucrat of 1973 batch, Chawla
retired as Finance Secretary on January 31. He was heading a
committee on allocation, pricing and utilisation of natural
resources till recently.
The commission (CCI) was established in 2003 to replace
the erstwhile Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices
Commission and Dhanendra Kumar was appointed as its first
chairman in February 2009. Kumar`s term ended on June 5 this
year.
The commission draws its power from the Competition Act,
2002, to keep check on unfair practices including M&A deals
that abuse dominant position by market players.
PTI
