New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has issued orders against six firms for indulging in bid rigging and cartelisation in tenders floated by Food Corporation of India (FCI). "CCI found these firms to have indulged in cartelisation in the supply of Low Density Poly Ethylene covers (LDPE) to Food Corporation of India (FCI) by means of directly or indirectly determining prices, allocating tenders, coordinating bid prices and manipulating the bidding process. The case was initiated on the basis of a Reference filed on behalf of FCI," said an official statement on Monday.
"The Competition Commission of India (CCI) issued a final order on 29th October, 2021 against six firms which were found to have contravened the provisions of Section 3(1) of the Competition Act, 2002 read with Section 3(3)(d) thereof, which proscribe anti-competitive agreements," the statement added.
In this backdrop, the CCI issued a cease and desist order against these six firms that were found to be guilty of bid rigging and cartelisation in the said tenders floated by FCI. However, CCI refrained from imposing any monetary penalty, considering that four out of six firms had filed lesser penalty applications and had admitted their conduct, confessed their modus operandi during the investigation and had fully cooperated with the CCI.
"Moreover, the firms were also MSMEs with limited staff/ turnover and the prevailing economic situation arising due to the outbreak of COVID-19 had wrought stress upon the MSME sector in the wake of the said pandemic," the order said.
FCI is a PSU which is involved in distribution of food grains throughout the country for the public distribution system (PDS), providing effective price support operations for safeguarding the interests of the farmers and maintaining satisfactory level of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure national food security. FCI also intervenes in the market from time to time for stabilising prices of food grains.
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