CCI hold cement companies guilty of bid, rigging and cartelisation
The competition watchdog has held seven cement companies guilty of bid rigging and cartelisation and imposed a total fine of nearly 206 crore on them. The companies are Shree Cement, UltraTech Cement, Jaiprakash Associates, JK Cement, Ambuja Cements, ACC and JK Lakshmi Cement. The ruling relates to a tender floated by a Haryana agency in 2012. "The anti-competitive conduct was reaffirmed through SMS exchanged and calls made amongst the officials of the cement companies," the finance ministry said in a statement. In a 120-page order, the Competition Commission of India also directed the companies "to cease and desist" from such activities while imposing penalty equivalent to 0.3% of each of their average turnover for three financial years. UltraTech has to pay the highest penalty of 68.30 crore, followed by Jaiprakash Associates ( 38.02 crore), ACC ( 35.32 crore), Ambuja ( 29.84 crore), Shree Cement ( 18.44 crore), JK Cement ( 9.26 crore) and JK Lakshmi Cement ( 6.55 crore).
Tags : ALLIED