Industry & Economy
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Cement
Cement industry sees marginal benefit on coal duty cut
K.R. Srivats
New Delhi
,
Jan. 8
THE cement industry has termed the Government's move to slash basic customs duty on non-coking coal from 25 per cent to 15 per cent as a "step in the right direction" even as it admitted that the reduction would make " very little difference" for the cement units in the country.
Reacting to the Government announcement, the Secretary-General of the Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA), Mr A.V. Srinivasan, told Business Line here that most of the non-coking coal imported by the industry is coming in duty-free against export entitlement of cement.
He highlighted that the international prices of non-coking coal have nearly doubled in the last 12 to 18 months and that this duty reduction can at best give a "partial relief" to cement units.
At the same time, Mr Srinivasan also held that cement units that are not located far away from the coast would benefit from the move as they even now resort to import of non-coking coal. Cement industry is largely dependent on local supplies for non-coking coal. A cement industry official said that the industry consumes about 17 million tonnes of non-coking coal every year. This includes non-coking coal imports of about 3.5 mt to 4 mt, most of which are imported duty-free against cement export entitlement.
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