Excise duty on coal to increase cement prices: Birla Corp
By IANSTuesday, March 1, 2011
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 Tuesday.
“In the budget presented yesterday (Monday), 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 on the sidelines of a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event.
“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 Rs.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.
