Neeraj Bagga
Amritsar, March 5
In the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of coal has gone up by nearly Rs 10,000 per metric tonne in India. It has also triggered a spike in the prices of brick, cement and steel.
Already, people are reeling under the spiralling prices of essential commodities, including edible oils, vegetable ghee, refined oil, wheat flour, washing and bathing soaps among others.
A week ago, the price of coal stood at Rs 18,200 per metric tonne, which has now gone up to Rs 28,000. Consequently, the prices of steel have gone up from Rs 63 per kg to Rs 74; per 1,000 bricks from Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 and a bag cement from Rs 380 to Rs 400.
Knock-on effect
Coal is widely used as industrial fuel. A rise in its price is likely to impact cost of commodities produced using coal as fuel. —Mukesh Nanda, Joint secretary, All India Brick Manufacturers Assn
The rise in coal prices is said to be the consequence of the supply chain getting affected as Russia is among the top 10 coal-producing nations in the world.
Mukesh Nanda, joint secretary, All India Brick and Tiles Manufacturers Federation, said: “Though India is among the top three coal producing countries, we are not getting domestically mined coal. We have been battling spiralling coal prices for the past one year. Price of a metric tonne of coal was Rs 10,000 in March 2021.” Last year, he had procured coal worth Rs 50 lakh to run his kiln. Now, for the same quantity he has to shell out Rs 1.50 crore.
Inderjit Verma of the Punjab Brick Kiln Owners Association said unhappy at the upward trend of coal prices, they had approached the Department of Industries and Commerce to provide brick kilns coal under the state industrial coal quota. “We had even submitted cheques in advance. Neither were those cheques drawn nor coal issued under the quota,” he lamented.
Ashish Bhalla, another brick kiln operator, said price escalation had come as a jolt to the industry right at the start of the brick manufacturing season in March, which lasts up to June. “Further, the Centre is set to hike the GST on bricks from 5 per cent to 12 per cent from April 1.”
On the other hand, the government decided to bring down the GST on cement and cement made bricks from 12 to 5 per cent from April 1. “It apparently wants to discourage the conventional brick kiln industry, which is highly labour intensive and generates employment,” he added.
Brick, steel prices spiral as coal rates up
{$excerpt:n}
