Budget 2013: Reduce interest rates for chlor-alkali industry, says FICCI

NEW DELHI: The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry ( FICCI) is rooting for the reduction of the interest rate and bring it to the international competitive prices so as to trim down on input cost for the chlor-alkali sector.

The chlor-alkali industry in the country produces mainly caustic soda, chlorine and soda ash.

Several industries that have direct linkages with this sector, including Soaps and Detergent, Pulp and Paper, Textile Processing, Aluminium Smelting, Dyes and Dyestuff, Plastic Polymers, Rayon Grade Pulp, Pharmaceuticals, Electroplating and Adhesives/Additives.

To reduce the input costs, customs duty of 5 per cent on fuel oils should be abolished for imports by power intensive chlor-alkali industry, it said in its pre-Budget memorandum.

Allocation and pricing of natural gas used by captive power units feeding power to caustic soda and soda ash units should be made available under the administrative price mechanism, FICCI added.

"As per Electricity Act 2003, the distribution companies are bound to provide network access to large industries that consume above 1 MW of power and regulators can fix the charges for such wheeling of power, but the state governments are not implementing this provision and they impose a huge cross subsidy charges on consumers buying from open market. This needs to be implemented by the government on priority basis so that wheeling of power is a reality," it said in its pre-Budget memorandum.