Tamil Nadu - Thanjavur   

Concern over rise in cement prices

Special Correspondent

Thanjavur : The Thanjavur Centre of the Builders Association of India has expressed concern over the rise in price of cement and iron and appealed to the State and Central Governments to streamline the prices.

A resolution was adopted at the meeting of the centre held here on Tuesday.

B. Sivanandam, State Chairman of the BAI, and N. T. Balasundaram, chairman of the Thanjavur centre, told presspersons that cement constituted 13 per cent of the total cost of construction.

Cement prices, which were stable at around Rs. 125 to Rs.145 per bag between 2003 and 2005, have risen meteorically to Rs. 210 to Rs. 225 per bag in a short period between January and April, 2006.

The nearly 100 per cent increase in cement price has not only wiped out contractor's profit but also resulted in huge losses.

It also led to cost and time overruns for all infrastructure works coupled with unemployment of skilled workers.

As per the BAI's observation there is no corresponding justification for the increase in price from the cost point of view and it is especially strange that the operating profits of leading cement manufacturers have doubled in the fourth quarter of 2005-2006 compared to the third quarter in spite of the so-called input cost increase claimed by them.

``We are puzzled that the government's measure has been grossly insufficient with respect to this strange phenomenon of disproportionate price rise. The Cement Manufacturers Association has made a deceptive offer of five per cent reduction in price on the so-called government purchases and this offer needs to be outright rejected,'' they said.

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Concern over rise in cement prices

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