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| Dhruvkumar Lallubhai Desai,, Trustee BAI |
6 Years..!
Single-handedly. For 6 years, and counting. It was Mr.Dhruvkumar Lallubhai Desai, a trustee of the BAI (Builders’ Association of India) and a retired contractor.who compiled and submitted a 3,500 page application to India’s competition regulator CCI (Competition Commission of India) in July 2010 that alleged that cement producers were colluding to fix prices.
On June 20, 2012 the CC India held 10 cement companies guilty of operating like a cartel, and the industry’s apex association of abetting them. For Mr. Dhruvkumar Lallubhai Desai, it was a victory against many odds.
The complaint to the CCI was made despite a previous complaint to another government regulator pending for 4 years and despite the very people he represented having ceased to believe in him.
“They (BAI members) thought I am mad,” quips the Gujarati, known as Shankarbhai to most BAI members.
A CCI ruling, favourable to BAI, has infused new energy in the fight of the 80 year old association.
‘Fine on Cement Companies Must be Raised’
“Shankarbhai is passionate about his fight against cement companies. He can speak for hours on the issue,” says Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani, co-founder,MD of the Hiranandani Group, a real estate developer and a BAI member.
For the past 6 years, Mr.Dhruvkumar Lallubhai Desai has spent much of his working hours on this case, compiling documents, crunching numbers, tracing patterns & studying regulation. Heaps of paper & files on cement prices, dispatches & production, among other things, crowd his desk in the small BAI office on the 7th floor of a high rise in Tardeo, South Mumbai.
“We have won the battle,” says the diminutive, soft spoken septuagenarian. “But the war is still on.” The next ‘battle’ in that ‘war’ is likely to be fought in the CCI appeals forum. Even as he prepares for that, Me. Desai is working to open up two new fronts.
The BAI wants the CCI to increase the penalty on the cement companies charged. Under CCI rules, the penalty for a cartel violation is 3 times a company’s net profit or 10% of its turnover, whichever is higher.
In this case, the CCI has fined the cement companies 50% (0.5 times) of their net profit for 2009-10 & 2010-11. The BAI plans to ask the CCI to increase this to 3 times their net profit. It also plans to ask the CCI to amend its rules to allow for criminal prosecution of a company and its officials, if they are found guilty.
“Otherwise, the cartel will go on, and when proven guilty, a company will fork out a paltry penalty,” says Mr. Desai.
Volunteered Free services..!
Desai joined his father’s contractor company in 1968 & subsequently took over. Theirs was a small firm that mostly did work for the BMC (Bombay Municipal Corporation), 2 jobs being the construction of Sion Hospital and Sion College. After his son chose to open a sanitaryware dealership, rather than join the family contractor business,
Mr. Desai shut the company in 2000. That same year, retired and welloff, he became a BAI trustee.
“Shankarbhai’s honesty & dedication is striking,” says Dattatraya Mhaiskar, a director of IRB Infrastructure Developers, a BAI member, who has known Desai since 1960. “He volunteered his services to BAI for free. That does not mean he works half heartedly. Once he takes up a responsibility, he ensures he sees it to the end.”
News and Photo Src: ET
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