Govt can’t ban cement cartel: FM

Govt can’t ban cement cartel: FM
25 April 2007


Government on Tuesday admitted to the presence of cement cartels and its inability to deal with them without effective competition law in the country.

"...As Mr Dhall has said there are well known cartels, especially in tyre and cement industry... I don’t deny that there are many unseen cartels in India’s economy," FM P Chidambaram said.

The book, titled Competition Law Today, is edited by Vinod Dhall, a member in the Competition Commission of India. Chidambaram said: "If any law requires to be urgently amended, I think it is law on competition because there is no law, one is not able to deal with what are obvious anti-competitive practices."Competition Commission was set up in 2003, but not given full statutory powers.

Company affairs minister Premchand Gupta said the Competition Amendment Bill would be tabled in Parliament soon. Chidambaram in this year’s Budget had announced a dual duty structure on cement by hiking excise duty by Rs 200 a tonne if it sold hig
Published under Cement News