Kazi Farms fined Tk 5 crore, Suguna Food Tk 3.44 crore

Bangladesh Competition Commission has fined Kazi Farms Tk 5 crore and Suguna Food and Feeds Bangladesh Private Limited Tk 3.44 crore in two cases for unusual increase in broiler chicken prices in the market.

The companies were fined for violating Section 15 of the Competition Act, 2012, Pradip Ranjan Chakraborty, chairperson of the commission, told The Daily Star.

The Section 15 of the Competition Act says that no person shall directly or indirectly enter into any agreement or collusion -- in respect of production, supply, distribution, storage or acquisition of any goods or services -- which causes or is likely to cause an adverse effect on competition or creates monopoly or oligopoly in the market.

The two companies will have to pay the fine in 10 working days, he said.

For failure to clear the fine in time, the two companies will have to pay an additional fine of Tk 1 lakh every day, Chakraborty said.

The two companies can also appeal against the verdict to the commerce ministry, he said.

James Amalanathan, country head of Suguna, told The Daily Star, "I don't understand why they have fined us. This is baseless. We have given an explanation from our end and all the data…We are going for an appeal."

When contacted for comments, Kazi Farms told The Daily Star via WhatsApp, "Kazi Farms is an honest and law-abiding business, and has never engaged in collusion or price fixing. Our auction process is a transparent, fair means of discovering the daily market price. We will appeal against this decision and expect to be found innocent."

In September last year, the Competition Commission filed 44 cases against a host of individuals and organisations, accusing them of creating an artificial crisis that led to abnormal hike in the prices of items like rice, flour, eggs, poultry and toiletries.

Kazi Farms and Suguna Food and Feeds Bangladesh Private Limited were also among those sued.

The commission operates under the commerce ministry and is empowered to probe, try, and punish errant companies for breaching competition laws. The commission operates under Competition Act, 2012, which allows to dispose of cases without going to a court.