PD Sharma urges government to restrain producers from irrationally pricing commodities

Ludhiana, November 7, 2013: The Apex Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Punjab) president PD Sharma said common commodities like Diesel, Petrol & Steel etc. are priced on import parity basis. Normally prices are fixed based on the cost of production. The prices of Diesel, Petrol & Kerosene oil are fixed on Import Parity Basis. This means the cost of brining such products to our ports includes the import duty & prices fixed by adding these charges. The reality is that our country is self sufficient in these products & these products are exported. The import duty on diesel is 2.58% including other charges it becomes more than 3%. Therefore, the all Companies are taking this without actually paying. As a result these companies are getting Rs. 2.39 per liter extra on diesel. Logically Oil Companies should fix the price on export parity basis instead of import parity basis. Unfortunately the Parikh Committee proposed that oil Companies should fix price by taking 80% of Import Parity Basis & 20% of Export Parity Basis. The same is done in respect of petrol & Kerosene oil. This is erroneous.

In a statement here today, he added steel is one of the major inputs for Steel based Industries. Steel is also priced on Import Parity Basis. This means Steel users are paying more than 100 dollar per tonne extra cost over these Global rates.

“Government is urged to restrain the producers of these commodities from irrationally pricing these commodities”, he said, adding some countries view this matter of pricing is illegal & companies have been penalized for that.