ISLAMABAD, Aug 7: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) will pay a reward of up to Rs1 million to a person, who will provide credible information leading to unmasking of any cartel activity.

The commission has introduced the Reward Payment to Informants Scheme in line with the existing best international practices at a time when the Pakistani market is getting more and more vulnerable to cartels in different fields.

The scheme has been introduced through amendment to the General Enforcement Regulations, 2007, with the objective of un-covering and taking action against the cartel activity. The minimum reward money is Rs200,000.

The reward to be paid shall be calculated by reference to the usefulness of the information provided, seriousness of the cartel, efforts made by the informant and level and nature of his contribution.

The informant’s identity will not be revealed until he/she desires to disclose it while accepting to act as witness in the court against a cartel.

Thresholds of Mergers: In addition to existing two thresholds, which relate to minimum limit of the value of gross assets of undertakings intending to proceed with merger and their annual turnover, the following new thresholds have been prescribed, through amendment to the Competition (Merger Control) Regulations, 2007.

According to an official announcement issued here on Thursday, the value of transaction relating to acquisition of shares or assets shall be Rs100 million or more.

In case of acquisition of shares by an undertaking, if an acquirer acquires voting shares, which taken together with voting shares, if any, held by the acquirer shall entitle the acquirer to more than 10 per cent voting shares.

The value of transaction involved in the merger is an important factor, which did not exist in the thresholds previously prescribed. This amendment may now rationalise the thresholds for merger.

The exemption from filing pre-merger notification: With a view to save the undertakings from the exercise of filing pre-merger notification under section 11 of the Competition Ordinance, 2007, certain transactions have been exempted, specifically from filing of the pre-merger notification:

A transaction in which a holding company increases its stake in its subsidiary or the subsidiaries thereof increase their equity investment in each other; shares acquired by succession or inheritance; and allotment of voting shares pursuant to a right issue; provided that the voting securities acquired do not increase, directly or indirectly, the acquiring person’s per centum share of outstanding voting securities of the issuer.

The above provision about the transactions exempted from pre-merger notification has also been inserted through suitable amendment in the Competition (Merger Control) Regulations, 2007.

Before finalising the above amendments, the commission wants to elicit opinion of the undertakings and others concerned. For that purpose, the draft amendments have been published in the newspapers having wide circulation in the country and have also been placed on website of the commission.