NEW DELHI: The Competition Commission today dismissed allegations of abuse of dominance made against Dhanlaxmi Bank with respect to a property loan.It was alleged by a Delhi-based complainant that the bank charged higher interest rate and imposed pre-payment charges.For the case, Competition Commission of India (CCI) considered 'market for provision of loan against property in Delhi' as the relevant one.After concluding that the bank is not a dominant player in the relevant market, the regulator said that "no case of contravention of Section 4" of the Competition Act is made out against opposite party (OP) Dhanlaxmi Bank.Section 4 of the Competition Act pertains to abuse of dominant position. "The commission observes that considering the small size of OP and presence of other major banks such as SBI , HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Central Bank of India Bank of Baroda , Kotak and other nationalised and private sector banks, OP is not dominant in the relevant market," CCI said. "In the absence of dominance of OP in the relevant market, the question of abuse of dominance in terms of Section 4 of the Act does not arise," it added.The complainant, who had taken the loan back in 2011, had alleged that the bank increased the floating rate when RBI hiked the repo rate, but did not reduce it when the central bank brought it down.

Source: Economic Times February 21, 2017 13:58 UTC