CCP sees no violation of Competition Act in tender for procurement of deep solar pumping system by KP Directorate of Agri Engineering.

ISLAMABAD -- The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has passed an order disposing of the matter against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate of Agriculture Engineering for alleged violation of Section 3 and 4 of the Competition Act, 2010; whereby the restrictive trading conditions are imposed in its tender for procurement and installation of 'Deep Solar Pumping Systems on Agriculture Tube-wells/open-wells.'

Catkin Engineering sent a formal complaint to the CCP alleging that KP Directorate of Agriculture Engineering had included certain unfair trading conditions in the tender for procurement and installation of Deep Solar Pumping Systems on Agriculture Tube-wells/open-wells, thus making the tender anti-competitive and in violation of Section 4 of the Competition Act.

As per the complainant, the Directorate in its tender required the firms to have registration with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA); must have PKR 200 million average turnover for the last three years in solar pumping systems; should have experience of projects of similar and complex nature worth PKR 10 million completed in last five years; and should have test bed for verification/testing of solar pumps along with all accessories as per ISO 9906 in company premises (firm must have third party certification regarding test bed arrangements).

The CCP's enquiry examined all the clauses separately to see whether there was any violation of the Competition Act or not. In its order, the CCP's bench stated that the complainant had failed to establish any violation of the Competition Act in the tender.

Regarding the first condition, the order stated that registration with KPRA is the same as obtaining a National Tax Number (NTN) from the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) i.e. a person/entity does not have to be actually paying any taxes to obtain an NTN. It also observed that registration with KPRA can be...