The amount, to be paid within four weeks is 10% of Rs 6,307 cr fine levied by Competition Commission against alleged price fixing
New Delhi : The Competition Appellate Tribunal on Friday ordered country’s top 10 cement producers, including UltraTech, Ambuja and ACC, and their association CMA to deposit Rs 630 crore as it hears their appeal against a record penalty imposed by competition watchdog CCI last year, reports PTI.
The amount COMPAT asked some of the nation’s biggest cement manufacturers and their lobby group CMA to cough up within four weeks represents 10 per cent of the Rs 6,307 crore fine that antitrust body Competition Commission of India (CCI) had fixed for alleged price fixing.
The companies include Aditya Birla Group-member UltraTech Cement, Holcim-controlled Ambuja Cements and ACC, Jaiprakash Associates, BCCI President Srinivasan-run India Cements, Madras Cements and the Indian unit of France’s Lafarge SA.
While cement makers are yet to take a call on whether to challenge the interim order before the Supreme Court, industry sources say a few of them are actually mulling the option.
“… we would chose to grant stay to the penalties, however, with a condition that the appellants (cement makers) deposit 10 per cent of the penalties inflicted (by CCI),” COMPAT said in its order directing cement firms to deposit the amount within a month.
“We also make it clear that if the penalties are not deposited, the appeal shall be treated as dismissed without further reference to the Court,” it added.
The three-member bench, headed by Justice V S Sirpurkar said that if the penalties were not so deposited, the appeal shall be treated as dismissed without further reference to the court.
However, unfazed by COMPAT ruling, shares of cement makers rose by nearly 3%. Jaiprakash Associates scrip rose by 2.56 per cent, while Ambuja Cements settled 2.06 per cent higher. Among others, ACC was up 0.71 per cent, UltraTech Cement (0.77 per cent).
As per the interim order, Ultratech has to deposit Rs 117.5 crore, Ambuja Cement Rs 116.30 crore, ACC Ltd Rs 114.76 crore, India Cement Rs 18.74 crore, JP Associates Rs 132.36 crore, Binani Cement Rs 16.73 crore, Madras Cement Rs 25.86 crore, J K Cements Rs 12.85 crore, Century Textiles Rs 27.4 crore and industry association CMA Rs 7.3 lakh among others.
Reacting to the interim order, Lafarge India said it would comply with the order of the Tribunal. At the same time, it said that the company “believes it has strong arguments to set aside the order of the Competition Commission.”
Cement makers along with the industry lobby group Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) had challenged the order of the fair trade regulator imposing Rs 6,300 crore penalty for forming cartel. The matter would now come up for final hearing in August.
