November 14, 2002	Thursday	Ramazan 8, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Nov 13: The Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) has expressed its dissatisfaction over the replies submitted by three polyester fibre manufacturers — Dewan Salman, Rupali and Ibrahim — to its notice on formation of cartel.

The Authority had taken suo motu notice of the situation where all the four manufacturers had raised the price of their product by the same rate. As a result, the price of polyester fibre was substantially higher than that charged by foreign producers. This state of affairs was hurting the textile industry, the main consumer of polyester fibre. The MCA had, therefore, decided to conduct a preliminary probe into what looked like a cartel.

While ICI had sent a fairly detailed reply to the MCA’s query about the production and prices of polyester fibre, according to a source, responses of the remaining three were rather evasive and empty of relevant information.

The Authority has, therefore, decided to ask the three companies to provide the requisite data within a week, failing which show-cause notice might be issued to them, the source said.

The process had also been initiated to issue show-cause notices to car manufacturers and shipping companies for violations of various provisions of anti-monopoly law.