Punjab Plywood Manufacturers, who are facing huge losses due to increase in raw material costs, have decided to increase the rates of plywood by 5 percent with immediate effect (September 17). The decision was taken in a meeting organized by the Punjab Plywood Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA), which was attended by around 200 manufacturers from across the state.
Mr Ashok Juneja, President, PPMA said, “For few months now, our input cost has increased manifold as the rates of basic raw materials for making plywood like Poplar, Safeda and Chemical have gone up rapidly. Also, now the cost of electricity is very high. The rate of Poplar has reached close to Rs 1000, yet the goods are not available. Prices have already been increased in other states, but Plywood Manufacturers of Punjab were incurring huge losses in the hope that the input cost would come down but now the situation is out of control, so we have decided to increase the rates of Plywood and allied products by 5 percent.''
During the discussion, exemption of raw materials from custom duty and imposition of anti-dumping duty on import of finished goods, reducing the burden of taxes by the government to control the prices of petro products, being a border state 80 percent of the goods are transported on road, etc were also discussed. It was said to provide freight subsidy to meet the expenditure incurred by sending it to other states by rail, and to encourage the farmers to run programs of planned tree plantation on the embankments of rivers and canals and vacant land by the government.
Mr Inderjit Singh Sohal, President, PPMA said, “There is no option but to increase the rate due to the increase in the price of raw material. The rate increase of 5 per cent is very marginal as compared to the increase in our cost of production as the input cost has gone up by about 20 per cent in four to five months.”