Consumers are still
the biggest losers for decades even with CA 2010.
It may sound so good to have in
place Competition Act 2010 (CA2010) in Malaysia since June 2010.
According to LAWS OF MALAYSIA Act
712 COMPETITION ACT 2010 as Gazette on 10 June, 2010, the Application of CA
2010 are (1) This Act applies to any
commercial activity, both within and subject to subsection (2), outside
Malaysia. (2) In relation to the application of this Act outside Malaysia, this
Act applies to any commercial activity transacted outside Malaysia which has an
effect on competition in any market in Malaysia. (3) This Act shall not apply
to any commercial activity regulated under the legislation specified in the
First Schedule and the Minister may, by order published in the Gazette, amend
the First Schedule.
And for the purposes of this Act,
“commercial activity” means any activity of a commercial nature but does not
include— (a) any activity, directly or indirectly in the exercise of governmental
authority; (b) any activity conducted based on the principle of solidarity; and
(c) any purchase of goods or services not for the purposes of offering goods
and services as part of an economic activity.
In Malaysia with a small
comparative domestic market, when most major and key economic activities can be
conducted by the Government and its agencies or Government linked Companies
growing bigger by the days, which are excluded from the CA2010, hence CA 2010
does not really make any major impact in the economy for the consumers at large.
Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah.said “Monopolistic
behavior within the economic realm of a country would constrain their economic
growth,” at the opening of the Malaysia Competition Conference 2017 in Petaling
Jaya on 6th March, 2017 Monday.
He went on to say that when firms begin to display
monopolistic behavior, consumers were the biggest losers.
If we analyse the economic sectors in Malaysia
(Government sector/excluded activities and private sector) by the size under
the excluded activities is huge, indeed consumers are the biggest losers for
decades. We can list out all those
sectors which are under Government regulations and controls. Sectors such as water, electricity and
energy, food including sugar and rice, medicines and health, infrastructure and
tolls, various Government departments once but now turned into designated
commissions all conducting business activities.
I hope an official proper review or investigation
into sort of “monopolistic” behaviour possibly unintended to harm the public or
consumers but the consumers are at their mercy as no choices of options. Would the Government consider in its
governance that a corrective measure be done to regulate how prices of such
excluded activities had been going up in recent years unsupervised. Such scenario can give the impression that
taxpayers and consumers are “over-taxed” when Governmental activities should be
free or simply at nominal low charges. Is the Government “guilty” of de-facto “monopolistic”
behaviour too?
Going by such unhealthy development of poor
services and higher prices of the excluded services, the consumers are even
greater losers by all standards. So the
CA2010 is itself can be a self-defeated piece of legislation which needs to
have another constructive look to be meaningful.
I also wonder if in 7 years, any positive action
and outcome has arisen from the said act when prices in Sabah had been rising
hefty in many products and services across the board. Is CA2010 a red herring in the prevalent
system now unless a revamp is done?
Joshua Y C Kong 7th March, 2017
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