Firozabad bangle makers up coating rates

In a meeting held recently, bangle metalising plant owners unanimously raised the charge for metallic coating on bangles, claiming that the price hike had become imperative in view of the rise in prices of chemicals, fuel and electricity. The metalising fee per bangle set has been raised by 50 paise.

The convener of the Firozabad Metalizers Association, Umesh Upadhyay, said there were about 30 metalising plants in Firozabad that applied metallic coating of silver, gold, copper, etc. on bangles.

Over the past one year, these plants had been facing losses of Rs 30,000-50,000 a month due to rising costs of input material but the real pinch was felt after the recent hike in power tariffs of up to 14 per cent combined with high fuel prices.

Upadhyay said that in a metalising plant electricity was a basic necessity required to run the electrolysing apparatus and in the absence of power, diesel generators were used to operate the plants. But in the past one year, the prices of diesel have risen by almost Rs 7 per litre and now the power corporation too had raised tariffs by 14 per cent, further increasing the losses faced by the metalisers.

Upadhyay said the decision to raise metalising fees was taken in an association meeting held in Firozabad recently, in which an eight-member committee had been formed to oversee a uniform rise in metalising fees. The committee will also review the input costs regularly and decide whether there was need for a further hike.