Concerned over the steep hikes at the prices of steel and cement India’s minister for Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Highways Mr Nitin Gadkari has written a letter to Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to arrest the trend. Mr Gadkari said at an Assocham event “Steel companies have raised the rates by 55% in the last six months. I have written to the Prime Minister and have suggested that the issue should be discussed at the highest level. Some decision has to be taken. This is not good. It has to be known if the hike is commensurate with the increased cost of labour, power and raw materials. Lowering the productivity and increasing the rate is not a good strategy.”He added “At a time when we are trying to create so many infrastructures, this kind of policy approach from their side would not do any good for them in the long-term. This is also not good for the country. We need to create a long term policy for the steel and cement sectors. If the prices of steel and cement companies stick to their present policy of jacking up prices, infrastructure projects would become economically unviable and might force the government to change its procurement & usage policy.”
Concerned over the steep hikes at the prices of steel and cement India’s minister for Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises and Highways Mr Nitin Gadkari has written a letter to Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi seeking his intervention to arrest the trend. Mr Gadkari said at an Assocham event “Steel companies have raised the rates by 55% in the last six months. I have written to the Prime Minister and have suggested that the issue should be discussed at the highest level. Some decision has to be taken. This is not good. It has to be known if the hike is commensurate with the increased cost of labour, power and raw materials. Lowering the productivity and increasing the rate is not a good strategy.”He added “At a time when we are trying to create so many infrastructures, this kind of policy approach from their side would not do any good for them in the long-term. This is also not good for the country. We need to create a long term policy for the steel and cement sectors. If the prices of steel and cement companies stick to their present policy of jacking up prices, infrastructure projects would become economically unviable and might force the government to change its procurement & usage policy.”
