BAI urges PM to constitute Cement Regulatory Authority to check cartelisation

In a letter to the Prime Minister, BAI has demanded that the Cement Regulatory Authority should be constituted on the lines of telecom, real estate and insurance sectors. The association's president Mu Moahan has stated that such a regulatory authority will prevent manufactures from "indulging in unethical trade practices, which have been causing irreparable damages to country's economic growth and hurting the interest of the common man and in turn, the construction industry".

Builders' Association of India (BAI) has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to constitute a regulatory authority for the cement sector on the lines of telecom and insurance industries to curb "cartelisation and undue profiteering". In a letter to the Prime Minister, BAI has demanded that the Cement Regulatory Authority should be constituted on the lines of telecom, real estate and insurance sectors.

The association's president Mu Moahan has stated that such a regulatory authority will prevent manufactures from "indulging in unethical trade practices, which have been causing irreparable damages to country's economic growth and hurting the interest of the common man and in turn, the construction industry". The BAI, in a statement, said it has substantiated its demand with the rulings and observations of various statutory bodies, committees and submissions in supreme institutions like Parliament and its statutory committees.

BAI noted that the cement industry was de-controlled in 1989 and de-licensed in 1991 under the policy of economic liberalisation. Decisions of installation of new plants are taken by the industry based on market demand. Mu Moahan said infrastructure and housing sectors being an enabler of economic growth and cement is the basic input for the construction sector.

"Cement industry, however, indulges in cartelisation for profiteering," he alleged. The construction industry is the second largest employer of workers, next to agriculture, and employs more than 50 million people in the country, he said and added the industry has forward and backward linkage to more than 400 allied industries.

"In such a backdrop, it is of the utmost importance to safeguard the interest of the sector, the common man and give a push to the economic growth of the country by establishing a regulatory authority for the cement sector," the BAI president said. Builders' Association of India is the apex body of the construction industry, founded in 1941, with more than 20,000 business entities as members through its 200 centres (branches) throughout the country.

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