Written by: AmritaChaudhry-RaakhiJagga
2 min readLudhianaApr 8, 2014 04:42 PM IST
First published on: Aug 28, 2013 at 04:38 AM IST
With rupee touching an all-time low against dollar at Rs 66,industrialists in the state are feeling the heat and will soon pass on the extra costs to the consumers.
The printing industry has already taken the lead by announcing an increase in the cost of art paper by Rs 3,000 per metric ton(pmt) which is about 15% as per the offset printing association(OPA). The plywood industry is also expected to announce a hike of about 10-15% in the prices of plywood soon. The furnace industry claims to have stopped import of scrap and are left with limited stocks of scrap with them. Packed food and imported fruits are some other items which have registered and increase in prices.
K K Garg,president of North India induction furnace association said,“we had booked orders for scrap at Rs 50,but now the price of dollar has jumped to Rs 66. Our association members have stopped import of scrap and we will be left without any raw material left because the domestic market gives us only 15% of the scrap. We have no choice but to import it from Europe,Dubai and other areas.”
Printing units had announced a 5% hike in imported paper in July. The 15% announced now will be effective from September 1 onwards on all uncoated wood,free grades of paper including poster and copier paper,said Gagandeep Singh,secretary OPA. Ashok Juneja,president of Punjab Plywood Manufacturers Association said,“the chemicals — Phynol and formaline – are imported from Europe while Vaneer,used in plywood industry to give it a cosmetic touch,is also imported. The fall in rupee rate against dollar has hit us and we have no choice but to increase the price of plywood by about 15%. Our general body meeting will take place soon to announce this hike.”
Apart from this,the cost of imported fruits,packaged food and cosmetics have also gone up. Industrialists feel that the weakening of the rupee will impact the economy in the long run and result in increase in inflation.
Share
