BAI seeks Cement Regulatory Authority to check cartelisation

New Delhi: 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”.

It 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”.

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.