The Competition Commission of India has rejected a complaint against the Kerala government and the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation over the Priyadarshini Scheme, which provides free travel on KSRTC buses to women and transgender persons.
The regulator’s order, dated September 8, found no prima facie violation of competition law in the state-funded scheme. The complaint had been filed by two private bus operators, who alleged that the benefit was restricted to KSRTC services and had caused women passengers to shift away from private buses.
The operators claimed that the change in passenger preference had led to a significant reduction in their passenger volumes and revenues. The complaint named the Kerala government and KSRTC as the parties responsible for the alleged abuse of a dominant position.
The Priyadarshini Scheme came into effect in June. Under the scheme, the state bears the cost of travel for eligible women and transgender passengers using specified KSRTC services. The CCI said the fare benefit could influence passenger choice but that this, by itself, did not establish that KSRTC or the state had denied market access to private operators.
“The alleged loss of fare-paying passengers or reduction in revenues may, at best, indicate a commercial disadvantage arising from the implementation of a welfare scheme,” the regulator said in its six-page order.
The CCI also said that the formulation and implementation of a government welfare scheme aimed at public welfare would not ordinarily invite scrutiny under the Competition Act. It noted that the differential commercial impact on private operators resulting from a state-funded policy could not, by itself, be characterised as a contravention of the law.
The regulator further held that the scheme did not establish the imposition of an unfair or discriminatory condition on private stage carriage operators or their passengers. A preference for KSRTC services resulting from the fare benefit was not sufficient to demonstrate a competition-law violation, it said.
The CCI’s decision addresses the competition-law question raised by the private operators but does not alter the operation of the Priyadarshini Scheme. The state-funded programme remains applicable to eligible women and transgender persons travelling on the specified KSRTC services.
