India calls for uniform rate of excise duty
The Indian cement industry, which is currently facing a slowdown in domestic demand, has put forwarded its various demands in its Pre Budget Memorandum to the finance ministry to help it sustain a healthy growth.
The sector has demanded uniform rate of excise duty be levied on cement. Furthermore, while there is no duty on cement import, all the three inputs – coal, petcoke and gypsum attract 5% import duty.
Another demand of the industry is that it wants rationalisation of stamp duties across all the states which will bring down the overall project cost. The industry has also requested the government to bring the value-added tax (VAT) on cement on a par with other building materials like steel as while steel attracts 4% VAT, for cement it is as high as 12.5%. Published under Cement News
