Third round of talks between All Pakistan Cement Dealers Association and cement manufacturers is going to be held on Friday in the provincial metropolis to resolve the ongoing strike, which may lead to some breakthrough, hoped President All Pakistan Cement Dealers Association Asif Saeed while talking to Business Recorder here on Thursday.
He said that their association is continuing its strike due to unjustifiable taxes and other factors resulting in high prices of the cement. He said that they had a round of talk with the provincial minister for industries on Tuesday while had two rounds of talks with the manufacturers and a third round is scheduled for Friday.
Asif was quite hopeful that they would succeed in reaching to some agreement with the manufacturers and the government as proposals from both sides would be discussed in the third round.
Meanwhile, according to the cement industry sources, the government is losing revenues of Rs 350 to Rs 400 million daily due to cement crisis as cement dealers are at loggerheads with FBR on documentation of sales.
Cement dealers strike has gravely cut down the cement supply resulting in worst scenario for the sector as total daily dispatches slashed from 150,000 tonnes to 40,000 tonnes.
The cement industry has already been marred with issues like gas price hike, axle load limitations, smuggling of Iranian cement, increase in FED etc, "Now the conditions imposed by FBR on distributors is further deteriorating the situation as the cement dealers and distributors have refused to pick up cement sacks from the factories," the sources added.
Cement industry contributed Rs 110 billion to national exchequer in last fiscal but this would considerably decrease due to economic condition which has severely dented the cement sales. This is very detrimental for local manufacturers and in the longer run can challenge the survival of local industry, the sources concluded.