'Imports not to hit cement prices'

The ongoing efforts to import cement for moderating domestic prices will not influence the prices during the current financial year, N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director, India Cements Limited, has said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the executive committee meeting of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), Srinivasan, who is also vice-president of the industry body, said cement prices would not be hit by any such interventions during the current year as the supply-demand gap was quite huge.

"I may not be certain about how the situation would be next year, but the present trend will continue throughout this year," he told Business Standard.

He said there was nothing much happening on the cement imports front even as the Centre removed import duties and brought down the countervailing duty to zero recently.

He denied the allegation that the cement industry was resorting to cartelisation.