New Delhi, Aug 14 (IANS): The Competition Commission of India (CCI) here on Wednesday imposed over Rs 17 crore penalty on Japan's JTEKT Corporation and its Indian subsidiary JTEKT Sona Automotive India Ltd (JSAI) for cartelisation with NSK Ltd, Japan, in supplying 'electric power steering' (EPS) systems to automotive manufacturers.

The anti-trust body, however, exempted NSK from a penalty as it was the first to approach the CCI as a "lesser penalty" applicant and had provided "complete, true and full disclosures".

"Further, in view of the fact that JTEKT or JSAI was the second to approach the commission as a lesser penalty applicant and had provided significant value addition in the matter, 50 per cent reduction in penalty was granted to JTEKT or JSAI and its individuals. Therefore, the total penalty to be paid by JTEKT or JSAI is Rs 17,07,31,443," a CCI statement said.

In the investigation, it was found that NSK and JTEKT indulged in cartelisation in supply of EPS systems to three automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) by means of directly or indirectly determining price, allocating markets, co-ordinating bid response and manipulating the bidding process in request for information or request for quotations issued by these three automobile OEMs during 2005-2011.

"The evidence in the case included instances of meetings and telephonic exchanges in which commercially sensitive information about prices was discussed. Such conduct of the parties was found to have caused appreciable adverse effect on competition in India," said the official statement.