Antimonopoly watchdog has hard task: Didik
JAKARTA (JP): The newly-established anti-monopoly watchdog was facing a grave task of setting up sound business environment in the country given the fact that monopoly and other unsound business practices have been deeply rooted here, members of the watchdog said.
"Monopoly and other unsound business practices have been here for decades. Business people conduct their businesses using the laws of the jungle... while the government has done very little to stop it," Didik Rachbini, one of the so-called Business Competition Control Commission (KPPU), told The Jakarta Post Saturday.
Didik also noted that the Commission might lack support from the government and the public in doing their job.
"So far, the government has been focusing on basic problems like unemployment and poverty eradication. Things like unfair business competition is only a secondary matter, not a major concern to government or public," he said.
President Abdurrahman Wahid issued a decree on June 7 on the establishment of the KPPU and the appointment of eleven members of the commission.
The formation of the commission is based on the Antimonopoly and Unfair Competition Law No. 5/1999.
The commission has the rights to investigate inappropriate businesses who were suspected of doing unfair business practices and imposing sanctions on them.
The President will officially swear in eleven appointed commission members as soon as he returned from his overseas trip this week.
The eleven KPPU members are economists Pande Radja Silalahi, Didik Rachbini and Faisal Basri, businessman Soy Pardede, Bambang Purnomo Adiwiyoto, former government official Nabiel Makarim, former members of the House of Representatives Tadjuddin Noersaid Said and Erwin Syahril, member of political party Syamsul Muarif, member of cooperatives Moch. Iqbal and government official Sutrisno Purnomo. They will serve on a five-year term.
Major business players seem to welcome the presence of KPPU, said commission member Soy Pardede, who is also an executive of the Indonesian Chambers of Trade and Commerce.
"Somehow, many business players are expecting KPPU's works will help create a better, fairer business opportunity," he said over the weekend.
Some major companies have asked the KPPU to assess whether their businesses were against the provisions of the Antimonopoly and Unfair Competition law, Soy said, declining to name the firms.
KPPU is formed to control the implementation of provisions in the Antimonopoly and Unfair Competition Law, which was passed by the House of Representatives in February last year and ratified by then President B.J. Habibie a month later.
The law is the country's first legislation that directly deals with monopolies and other unfair business practices.
The law prohibits, among others, an individual company from controlling more than 50 percent of the domestic market, and two or three companies from controlling a combined 75 percent of the market. Market share is determined by sales value rather than volume.
Under the law, which will be effective in September, the independent KPPU has the authority to monitor business agreements and activities in the country.
Soy said KPPU was also authorized to question entrepreneurs over alleged improper business conducts and impose administration sanctions on them or their companies if found guilty of practicing monopoly and other unfair business operations.
"We can ban a person from holding a position in a company for up to five years. We can also order a company to void a merger if we found the deal was leading the firm into monopoly," he said, adding that foreign business entities are also liable to KPPU's investigation.
According to the law, individuals or companies found guilty of violating the law will face fines of between Rp 1 billion (US$125,000) and Rp 100 billion and/or jail terms of between three and six months. (cst)