The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt. of India has made important revisions to the merger control regime in India. The following three Notifications were published in the Gazette of India on March 4, 2016.
A. THRESHOLDS FOR NOTIFICATION REVISED- Through the first Notification, the Central Government has increased thresholds, both assets and turnover, for any transaction to qualify as a combination under Section 5 of the Competition Act, 2002 ("Act")by 100%. Consequently, the following shall be the revised thresholds under the Act to trigger the filing requirement for any transaction before the Competition Commission of India (CCI):
| Threshold for proposed combination (acquirer + target) | Threshold for group post acquisition | ||
| In India | In or outside India | In India | In or outside India |
| Assets | Assets | Assets | Assets |
| Jointly worth more than INR 3,000 Crores (INR 30 billion) | Jointly worth more than USD 1500 million (including assets worth at least INR 1500 Crores (INR 15 billion) in India) | Jointly worth more than INR 12,000 Crores (INR 120 billion) | Jointly worth more than USD 6 billion (including assets worth at least INR1500 Crores (INR 15 billion) in India) |
| Turnover | Turnover | Turnover | Turnover |
| Jointly worth more than INR 9,000 Crores (INR 90 billion) | Jointly worth more than USD 4.50 billion (including at least INR4,500 Crores (INR 45 billion) in India) | Jointly worth more than INR 36,000 Crores (INR 360 billion) | Jointly worth more than USD 18 billion (including at least INR 4500 Crores (INR 45 billion) in India) |
Unless exempted or excluded otherwise, all combinations meeting the above thresholds are mandatorily required to be sought approval of the CCI before consummation.
B. TARGET EXEMPTION REVISED AND EXTENDED-Through another Notification, the Central Government has increased the limits for the target exemption. The exemption is now available to those transactions where the assets of the target enterprise (whose control, shares, voting rights or assets are being acquired) are not more than rupees three hundred and fifty Crores OR the turnover of the target enterprise(whose control, shares, voting rights or assets are being acquired) is not more than rupees one thousand Crores. The exemption, colloquially referred to as the "Target Exemption", shall be applicable for a further period of five years from March 4, 2016.
C. EXEMPTION FOR "GROUP" EXTENDED - Through a third notification, the Central Government has extended the exemption to a 'Group' exercising less than fifty per cent of voting rights in other enterprise from the provisions of Section 5 of the Act. The said exemption shall be applicable for a further period of five years from March 4, 2016.
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