Competitions and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) says it is revising the Competitions and Fair Trading Act as well as the Consumer Protection Act to match with them compatible with present business trends.

Director of Mergers and Acquisitions at CFTC Richard Chiputula said this in an interview on Friday at COMESA hall after a business session which to familiarize business people with the laws.

He explained that CFTC believes that the law is supposed to be in tandem with the developments which have taken place and the Competitions and Fair Trading Act was adopted in 1998.

“The law needs to be in tune with the developments that have taken place and this Act was passed somewhere in late 1990’s. Since then there have been a lot of developments that have taken place. We need to refine the Act so it addresses latest developments,” he added.

He said that if CFTC have an Act that addresses current issues it would be easier to enforce to promote compliance in the private sector.

Chiputula noted that the current act has areas which are difficult to understand and there is a need to have one which is simple and easy to understand so that the private sector should be complying accordingly.

He said: “From our perspective, there are certain provisions that need to be revised. For example, the Act criminalizes every offence and we believe there are some offenses which could be penalized through administrative penalties. Issues of mergers and acquisitions are also not clear in the Act and need further clarification.”

The Director pointed out that due to the absence of the consumer council to enforce the Consumer Protection Act, government mandated CFTC to be enforcing the law which means that the Act also has to be amended for the Commission to easily enforce it.

As a step towards refining the Acts, Chiputula outlined that there are draft bills which are being considered by the government and CFTC hopes that these bills will be brought to parliament.

Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Spokesperson Pilirani Masanjala said that CFTC sent instructions of the proposed bills to the Ministry but the instructions were incomplete hence the bill stalled.