News / National
Findings on local authorities monopoly abuse out by April - CTC
22 Mar 2012 at 13:51hrs | Views
THE Competition and Tariff Commission (CTC) has forwarded a report to its lawyers on the alleged abuse of monopoly by municipalities before coming up with a verdict.
The findings which are long overdue are expected to be out in April after CTC hold its board meeting.
The commission, accused of not being effective started its investigations into the alleged abuse of monopoly in local authorities by end 2010.
Residents had raided concerns that local authorities are charging high rates.
On Thursday, CTC assistant director Benjamin Chinhengo confirmed that the report is with their lawyers.
"The reports is complete are and our lawyers are expected to give legal opinion.
There are areas that as the CTC we feel local authorities conducted business in line with the Urban Councils Act," Chinhengo said.
In 2010, the commission undertook investigations into abuse of monopoly by Zesa and ruled that the power utility should credit consumers with load limiters 43 percent of the tariffs for the period 1 February to 30 November 2009 as they only had electricity 57 percent of the time due to load shedding.
The commission once investigated a 10% increase in the price of bread after it felt that the hike was unjustified.
Government through an Act of Parliament set up the CTC in 2009 to study trends towards increased economic concentration with a view to investigating monopolistic situations where they run parallel to public interest.
The Competition Act seeks to encourage and promote competition in all sectors of the economy, reducing barriers of entry to any sector of the economy or to any form of economic activity as well as fostering investigations, discouraging and preventing restrictive practices.
The findings which are long overdue are expected to be out in April after CTC hold its board meeting.
The commission, accused of not being effective started its investigations into the alleged abuse of monopoly in local authorities by end 2010.
Residents had raided concerns that local authorities are charging high rates.
On Thursday, CTC assistant director Benjamin Chinhengo confirmed that the report is with their lawyers.
There are areas that as the CTC we feel local authorities conducted business in line with the Urban Councils Act," Chinhengo said.
In 2010, the commission undertook investigations into abuse of monopoly by Zesa and ruled that the power utility should credit consumers with load limiters 43 percent of the tariffs for the period 1 February to 30 November 2009 as they only had electricity 57 percent of the time due to load shedding.
The commission once investigated a 10% increase in the price of bread after it felt that the hike was unjustified.
Government through an Act of Parliament set up the CTC in 2009 to study trends towards increased economic concentration with a view to investigating monopolistic situations where they run parallel to public interest.
The Competition Act seeks to encourage and promote competition in all sectors of the economy, reducing barriers of entry to any sector of the economy or to any form of economic activity as well as fostering investigations, discouraging and preventing restrictive practices.
Source - Byo24News
