The Competition Appellate Tribunal has served notices to the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and the Builders Association of India, on whose complaint the former had imposed a penalty of Rs 6,307 crore on 11 cement firms.
The Appellate Tribunal, during the hearing of an appeal by cement companies like UltraTech and ACC, asked the CCI not to take any coercive action in the matter till October 11.
The cement firms had approached the Appellate body to quash the CCI order on cartelisation. They had also requested for an interim stay on the penalty till the tribunal decides on their petitions.
Ten out of eleven cement companies penalised for cartelisation had approached the Competition Appellate Tribunal for a redressal last week.
In June, the CCI had imposed a penalty of Rs 6,307 crore on top eleven cement companies for cartelisation.
All the 11 firms were fined 50 per cent of their average profit for fiscal years 2010 and 2011, the period for which they were investigated.
The major companies which were imposed a penalty included ACC Ltd, Ambuja Cements Ltd, UltraTech Cement Ltd and Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, which were fined in excess of Rs 1,000 crore each.
Unanimous decision
The anti-trust watchdog, in its unanimous decision by all six members and Chairman Ashok Chawla, also fined lobby group Cement Manufacturers’ Association (CMA) a token amount.
The commission investigated 39 cement companies on a complaint filed by the Builders Association of India (BAI), a lobby group of engineering and construction contractors.
Directive to CMA
The CCI had asked the companies to deposit the penalty amount in the next three months. It had also directed the CMA to stop collecting information about prices, dispatches and products and circulating it among its members.
Stocks of most major cement firms were trading at lower levels today compared to the pervious close.