Excise duty on coal to increase cement prices

Tuesday, 01 March 2011, 23:48 IST   |    2 Comments
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Kolkata:The imposition of excise duty of one percent on coal, proposed in the general budget 2011-12, will push up cement prices, a top executive of leading cement maker Birla Corporation Limited said. "In the budget presented, one percent excise duty was imposed on coal. It is a new introduction. It will be adding to the cost of coal and increased coal price will have a huge negative impact on the cement industry," Birla Corporation's chief financial officer P.K. Chand said. "As far as we are concerned, we use B grade coal in cement production. For us, increase in coal cost will be huge due to the excise duty. I am afraid that the cost of cement production will rise. Cement price will increase by at least 10 per bag across the industry," he said. Chand said prices of A and B grade coal have already increased by more than 100 percent in recent times. Price rise in rest of the coal categories is about 30 percent, he added.
Source: IANS