The $500-million acquisition of Sahara Airlines by Jet Airways could have come 'under the scrutiny' of the Competition Commission of India had the body been made operational.
"Such mergers (Jet-Sahara) are likely to have a scrutiny from the competition angle by the Commission," CCI Member Vinod Dhall said in New Delhi on the sidelines of a seminar organised by industry chamber Assocham.
The CCI has been instituted to prevent monopolistic and restrictive trade practices, but is yet to be made operational.
He said CCI had not 'yet started its enforcement activities' otherwise the merger, which gives Jet more than 50 per cent of market share, would have been under the CCI's scrutiny.
Dhall said in general CCI would scrutinise any takeover that was likely to kill competition but declined to comment on whether the Jet-Sahara deal would fall in such a category.
He said mergers and takeovers that have the intent to capture larger chunk of market size in an area of economic activities that defied the fundamental rules of fairplay would be examined critically by CCI.
