Even as India’s ministry of steel attributes the shortage of iron ore as a cause for steel price increases, the country’s ministry of highways and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) has come down heavily against steel and cement producers for hiking prices without valid reasons.
Minister of highways and MSME, Nitin Gadkari, said on Monday, December 14, that steel and cement industries have been taking advantage of government initiatives to help businesses and have been increasing prices of steel and cement without any commensurate increase in prices of power and raw materials, pointing out that steel prices have increased by 55 percent over the last six months.
The minister said that there is nothing wrong in business with persons earning profits and in fact it is a ‘fundamental right’, but there has to be a reason for increasing prices. He accused steel and cement companies of forming cartels and raising prices of building materials even as the construction industry has been hard hit by the pandemic and national lockdown.