Cement firms reject cartel charge, urge realty price cut

The South India Cement Manufacturers’ Association (SICMA), a newly formed group, has rejected charges of cartelisation and instead urged the government to ensure that builders’ cut prices by at least 50% so as to make housing affordable and help reinvigorate overall demand in the economy. In a letter to the Prime Minister, copies of which were released to the media here, SICMA said the primary reason for the poor growth of the housing sector was the builders’ lobby’s efforts to hold on to margins of ‘more than 100%’ by maintaining the prices of flats/ houses at artificially high levels. This had led to an unsold inventory of 75 lakh flats across nine major markets, it said.