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The Serious Fraud Investigation Office has found UltraTech Cement, ACC and Gujarat Ambuja guilty of price manipulation. The SFIO submitted a report to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs on Friday.
“The maximum quantity of cement has been sold at the highest possible or maximum prices. The companies have played with demand and supply in such a way that the supply was always just short of the total demand thereby leading to an artificial increase in prices,” said an official.
The fraud probe office of the Government investigated each of the three companies individually and found evidence of price manipulation by them at regular intervals.
The Ministry had ordered its investigating arm SFIO to probe charges of price manipulation by the three companies under section 234 (6) of the Companies Act, 1956. SFIO in its report submitted to the Ministry, held the three manufacturers guilty of price manipulation and recommended action against them.
The companies defended their position by saying their actions were “a function of the market and the way the cement industry functions”.
The Ministry had then asked SFIO to respond to the companies' defence.
On Friday, SFIO submitted its response to the MCA.
SFIO found that there was complex manipulation on a daily basis at all levels by the companies. Though the report has not used the word ‘cartel' anywhere, the separate investigations of each company point to its existence.
“The companies manipulated prices from time to time. But there were also some markets where they did not succeed,” explained the official.
The three companies control almost one-third of the country's total cement manufacturing capacity of 300 million tonnes.
Officials indicated that it is “challenging” to prove that companies acted as a cartel in the absence of physical evidence such as photographs or letters.
Last year, the Builders Association of India had moved the Competition Commission of India alleging that the Cement Manufacturers Association and 11 of its members had formed a price cartel.
The CMA had denied the charges.
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