A day after the cement companies agreed to cut prices between Rs 3 and Rs 7.5 per bag of 50 kg, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said there is big scope for further reduction in retail prices.
"I do think that there is a scope for significant reduction in cement prices," Chidambaram said.
When asked whether the government would consider the request from the cement industry to cut excise duty, Chidambaram said "I do not know".
In the past two months, government has taken various fiscal measures such as cutting import duties on edible oils besides banning export of cement and non-basmati rice to contain inflation, which has touched a 42-month high of 7.6 per cent.
He said there was no proposal to cut import duty on crude oil because it has no impact on administered prices.
With the oil prices crossing 125 dollars a barrel, the state-owned marketing companies are suffering higher losses as they have not been allowed to pass on the entire burden onto the consumers due to pressure from the Left parties.
Government has so far been partly compensating the oil firms like Indian Oil Corporation, HPCL and BPCL by giving them bonds.
Asked whether the government would reward steel producers for reducing prices by way of withdrawing export duty, the minister said he has not received any such any proposal from the Steel Ministry.
