Although the draft of the merger control regulations under the Competition Act, 2002 were issued as early as January 2008 (more than a year ago), they are yet to be enacted. Specifically, there were concerns from industry that the scope and ambit of the regulations were too wide and onerous. Now that the new Government is in place with a new minister at the helm of affairs, it has been reported that the merger control regulations are likely to be enacted in the next three months. It is expected that these regulations would only apply prospectively, i.e., to transactions that have been formally initiated after the regulations come into force. Given the extensive debate surrounding the scope of merger control, it is possible that the draft regulations will be subject to a fair amount of changes and may not be enacted in their current form.
