Independent Consumer and Competition Commission

ICCC acting Chief Executive Officer, Brian Ivosa, said: “After taking into consideration D&D’s clearance application and its submission, including comments from relevant stakeholders and other available information, the ICCC has concluded that the proposed acquisition will not have, and will not be likely to have, the effect of substantially lessening competition in any markets in PNG.”

The ICCC formed the following conclusions in its assessment of the application:

The Indicative Retail Prices (IRPs) for petrol, diesel and kerosene will all increase on average, throughout the country. These retail price increases were attributed to higher oil demand because of global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, with the help of accelerating vaccination programs.

The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) said these retail price changes are mainly attributed to price movements for these petroleum products in Singapore at the Import Parity Price (IPP) level during the month of April.

The domestic retail fuel prices for this month are inclusive of the IPPs, domestic sea and road freight rates for the second quarter of 2021, the annual wholesale and retail margins for 2021, applicable excise duties and Goods and Services Tax (GST).

According to the ICCC’s calculations, retail prices for petrol, diesel and kerosene will all increase on average throughout PNG as of 08^th August. The increase in the retail prices is mainly attributed to the depreciation of the PNG kina against US dollar in July, and the increases in the Singapore (refinery) prices for petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Increases in the Singapore prices are mainly attributed to production outages as major refineries are being maintained and upgraded in preparation for a shipping industry shift to low sulphur fuels in 2020.

The proposed codeshare was between Port Moresby, PNG and Manila, the Philippines.

The ICCC is proposing this decision after assessing Air Niugini’s application and concluded that the POM/MNL route is already competitive; and introduction of this proposed code-share will stifle the current level of competition and reduce the current levels of benefits realized by the travelling public.

The three documents are: the Business Acquisition Review Guidelines; the Leniency Policy; and the Confidentiality Guidelines.

ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Paulus Ain, said in support of this call the ICCC would like to inform business houses, relevant stakeholders and the public that bid rigging in public procurement is a serious anti-competitive conduct and is criminal in nature.

Ain said if a company or person is found to be engaging in such conduct, they can be prosecuted and if found guilty, severe penalties (both civil and criminal penalties) may be applied by the Courts under the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission Act 2002 (ICCC Act).

ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer, Paulus Ain said the ICCC assessed Kina Bank’s authorisation application and was satisfied that the proposed acquisition, if it proceeds, would not lessen competition in any of the relevant markets. He therefore granted clearance for the acquisition to proceed.

In its consideration of the likely effects on competition as a result of the proposed acquisition, the ICCC had formed the following conclusions:

In a statement, ICCC Commissioner Paulus Ain explained his office wrote to the RTA to explain how the fees were calculated, but the deadline for the complete response lapsed, and ICCC filed court proceedings on 7^th March for an alleged breach of Section 128 of the ICCC Act.

Ain said the ICCC became concerned when RTA released a public notice in the press on 31^st May, 2018, announcing new road traffic fees and charges to come into effect on 1^st June, 2018.

Since the Third Party Access (TPA) Code was established in 2014, the ICCC has encouraged independent power producers (IPPs) with least generation cost to participate in the generation segment of electricity industry which is now open for competition. 

The wholesale price for IPPs are controlled by ICCC through the Power Purchase Reference Price (Reference Price) set under the TPA Code. TPA Code requires for establishment of reference prices for each transmission network owned by the transmission network owner that is PNG Power Limited (PPL).