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Ambarish Mukherjee

New Delhi, May 6 Major cement producers have assured the Government that they would hold their margins to help control inflation but have also asked the Government to facilitate their capacity expansion plans.

This assurance came at a meeting that top representatives of the industry, including the Cement Manufacturers Association President, Mr H.M. Bangur; the JK Lakshmi Cement Managing Director, Ms Vinita Singhania; the Lafarge CEO, Mr Vinay Khanna, and others, had with the Minister of State for Industry, Mr Ashwani Kumar, over the weekend.

“The industry pointed out several bottlenecks like delay in obtaining licences for mining limestone, forest clearance, coal linkages and we will clear them. But we have also extracted assurance from the industry that they will hold their margins,” Mr Kumar told Business Line here.

The Minister pointed out that the impact of the steps taken by the Government to check prices are becoming visible and prices have already started softening.

“My report is that on Monday prices in Gujarat came down by Rs 10-15 a bag (50 kg). This will have trickle down effect on Maharashtra and Rajasthan also because they are in the same region. The measures will have their full impact in four to six weeks time,” he said. .

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