The private member Bill to be moved in Lok Sabha by Standing Committee on Finance Chairman Jayant Sinha on Friday will be a separate Bill around the proposed Digital Competition Act for India. This Bill — titled in a misleading way by Lok Sabha Secretariat as Competition (Amendment) Bill 2023–has no overlap with the pending Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 introduced by the Government on August 5 last year, Jayant Sinha said on Thursday.

The way the private member Bill has been titled led to the perception and even confusion that Sinha is looking to bring something along with the Government’s bill —Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 introduced in Lok Sabha on August 5, 2022.

Separate bill

Seeking to clear the confusion in certain quarters, Sinha told businessline that the private member Bill he is moving “has no overlap and nothing to do at all with the Government’s Competition (Amendment) Bill 2022 which we have already considered in detail in our committee and on which we have sent a report to the government”.

“There is no overlap with the government competition bill and this (private member bill) was meant to be a completely separate bill on digital competition. This private member Bill was submitted many months ago. It was done even before the announcement of the Committee on Digital Competition Law by the Corporate Affairs Ministry.”

Sinha said that after submitting the report of the Standing Committee on “Anti-competitive practices by Big Tech Companies” in December last year, he felt would be useful to just show through a private member Bill what a Digital Competition law for India could look like. “It is meant to be suggestive”, he said, adding that his effort would in no way preempt or influence the working of the Committee on Digital Competition Law which has been given three months to submit its report.

The Standing Committee had in its report recommended that Government introduce a Digital Competition Act to ensure a fair, transparent, and contest able digital system, which will be a boon not only to the country and its nascent startup economy but also the world.

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