Pak cement imports rise
Business Standard

Imports too small to have an impact on local prices.

Cement imports from Pakistan are on the rise and have traversed the 100,000 tonne-mark since the floodgates gates opened in September this year.

Between October-November, the quantum of imports have jumped nearly 25 per cent to 46,883 tonnes from 37,557 tonnes in September.

However, the quantity is too small and has, therefore, failed to make any impact on the domestic cement prices.

“Since we began exports to India in September, 100,756 tonnes of cement have been exported via the sea and the rail routes,” said Shahzad Ahmed, secretary, All Pakistan Cement Manufacturers’ Association (APCMA).

Of the total quantity, almost 60 per cent has gone through the sea route and the rest by rail. “Export by road should be allowed so that we can step up supplies,” he added.

The average price of cement that was exported through the rail route is $72 (Rs 2,880) a tonne or Rs 144 a 50 kg bag, while the price of cement shipped through sea was $68 (Rs 2,720) a tonne or Rs 136 a 50 kg bag, according to Ahmed.

Even after including the cost of trasportation from the port or station, the cement reaches a consumption site at a price of around Rs 165 a bag. This is significantly cheaper than Rs 235-250 a 50 kg bag for the cement manufactured in India.

In April this year, the government had scrapped the 16 per cent countervailing duty on cement imports. It also withdrew the 4 per cent special additional customs duty. In January, the government had announced zero duty on cement imports. All these measures have rendered cement imports duty free.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has granted quality licences to eight cement companies in Pakistan after the government relaxed cement import norms earlier this year. Manufacturers based outside India need to conform to BIS-certified quality standards before supplying cement.

Pakistan has a production capacity of about 38 million tonnes. However, the consumption being just 25 million tonnes, the rest is surplus.

EPF refuses to invest funds in debt market
Economic Times

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) on Thursday rejected a proposal to invest funds in debt instruments such as rupee bonds.

Sometime last month, the government began tentatively exploring the possibility of convincing the Central Board of Trustees of EPF to invest in private bonds and mutual funds in the equity market to ensure better returns on investments.

The decision to soften up EPF on the debt market came after CBT flatly rejected the option to invest 5% of its corpus in the capital markets. The proposal to invest in private bonds is being posited as a viable option for investment on the contention that it would insulate, to some extent, from the constant upheavals in the stock markets.

In November-end, the Sensex lost 678 points (3.52%), the third biggest drop in a single day. and it is this yo-yo-ing that trade unions have pointed to time and again as a deterrent to investment of funds. Against this background, a meeting of CBT, chaired by Union labour minister Oscar Fernandes, turned down the proposal to park funds in the debt market citing safety and security factors in the investment pattern.

Private bonds, as opposed to government bonds, offer a higher interest rate but also spell a higher risk. Mutual funds usually give assured returns, on shorter term investments particularly, of anywhere between 7-10% on the conservative side.

Despite this, Citu and CBT member Varadharajan said, “We do not think that this proposal is a safe option. (Even if the money is invested in blue-chip stocks) it is still not safe. The trust factor is certainly a crucial and important thing to be taken into consideration.”

Thursday’s meeting was to also to discuss multiple fund managers for the EPF corpus. State Bank of India is currently the only bank doing fund management. However, CBT put off the decision for now, asking instead a three-member panel to work on the guidelines for fund management.

EPF board rejects proposal
Tribune

The central board of employees’ provident fund (EPF) today rejected a proposal for investing retirement funds in debt instruments like rupee bonds.
A meeting of the central board of trustees (CBT), chaired by union labour minister Oscar Fernandes, turned down the proposal for parking money in the debt market citing safety and security factors in the investment pattern.
A proposal to invest 5 per cent of PF money in the equity market was rejected earlier following opposition from trade unions.
CITU leader and a member of the board WR Vardharajan said: “We have rejected the proposal of the government to invest (subscribers' money) in the equity market. We do not think that this proposal is a safe option.

A draft of investment pattern was prepared in September. It suggested investing part of the PF money in equities share market and rupee bonds and the option of multiple fund managers to administer the EPF money.
The agenda of the meeting was also to discuss the conversion of a single fund manager into multiple fund managers.
The SBI was the sole manager of the EPF money so far. The government will now introduce other banks as fund managers to create competition and for the betterment of services as per the draft.
However, the board has not decided on introduction of private banks as fund managers. A three-member committee has been formed to work on the guidelines to select banks for administering the funds. — PTI