Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Conductor manufacturers seek cut in price of raw material

HYDERABAD: The Cable and Conductor Manufacturers’ Association of India (CACMAI) has appealed to the Government of India to rationalise the prices of aluminium in tune with global prices and bring down the price on raw material.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, CACMAI president D.C. Galada said that the prices of aluminium plummeted from US $ 3,300 a tonne to US $ 1,430 a tonne, but domestic prices had only come down from Rs. 1.52 lakh to over Rs. 1 lakh. They wanted it to be brought down to Rs. 80,000 a tonne, lest the small-scale industries of the cable and conductor manufacturing would lose their businesses.

The proportionate reduction had to be effected by the three major manufacturers, NALCO, BLACO and Hindalco, he said.

They urged the government to make sure that lowest bid should not be negotiated after the tender was opened while giving out contracts for power utilities. Otherwise, he said, the quality of conductors would suffer a casualty.

Mr. Galada said that there should be uniform tax structure across the country, for most States had different entry tax, sales tax, value-added tax, price preference and quantity reservation for local industry. The country was consuming five lakh tonnes of aluminium conductors.

N.S. Ranganath, member of national governing council of CACMAI, said that several conductor manufacturers in the State were losing out in the bids to industries from other States, as they were charged 2 per cent of central sales tax, while those from the State were being levied 4 per cent of VAT. Either the tender value comparison must be done without taking the taxes into account or the State government should provide tax relief to local manufacturers.

He also urged the State to introduce safeguards so that local industry could compete with industries from Sylvassa and Uttarakhand which enjoyed excise tax benefits.

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