Bangladesh Competition Commission is a government platform that works with respect to the Competition Act adopted by Bangladesh in 2012. They deal with cases involving unfair, illegal or ill motivated commercial activities and provide verdicts as per the law.
“A stable competitiveness in the market, that the Competition Commission works to ensure, can benefit the GDP of the country by 2-3%. Over all, a competitive commercial market is likely to benefit everyone involved, starting from investors of a business to consumers”, said Md Mofizul Islam, chairperson of the Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC).
The chairperson told Bangladesh Post that maintaining competitiveness in a country’s economy is very important. In a country like Bangladesh where businesses flourish everywhere, this competitiveness provides a sense of safety for new investors. The Competition Commission makes sure that an investor or company feels secure in terms of getting into competition with other businesses. The fact that a platform exists that can tackle the unfair intentions of businesses is ensuring.
He added, “Not only investors, consumers also highly benefit from a stable competitive market. Competitive market means competitive prices. Prices need to be determined by the demand and supply of a commodity and not by over-powered businesses. We make sure that all the cases that come to us are fairly dealt with interest of the economy in mind”.
Businesses tend to go to certain extents, fair or unfair, to benefit commercially. Their decisions and business policies sometimes harm other businesses and even exploit consumers. There are many cases registered in this respect to the Competition Commission.
“There are times when big or financially powerful businesses in the country try to irradiate their competition and establish dominance, creating an imbalance in the economy. That is where we step in. We protect the market and make sure that the commerce runs fair in competitiveness”, said Md Moniruzzaman Bhuiyan, Deputy Secretary of the Bangladesh Competition Commission.
He told Bangladesh Post that act as per the law and measures are taken against businesses that are found guilty. The main objective is not to punish but to make everyone aware of the rules and regulations and what they could and cannot do as a business.
He shared that recently, a case of Viqarunnisa Noon School & College was observed regarding a decision the school took about uniforms that would benefit the school commercially but was not in favorable interest of the students or guardians. The Competition Commission sorted the case and gave their verdict as well, abolishing the decision. A similar case was observed about the capital’s Ideal School where the commission has already passed their verdict as well.
There are other cases with names like Rangs Electronics, Foodpanda, Evaly etc in their pipeline which are still in the hearing procedures. The Competition Commission looks to its objective with no compromises and make fair judgments according to the law and the power bestowed upon them.
