India: The Jammu Department of Legal Metrology has registered a case against Ambuja Cement and seized a large quantity of cement bags.
The minister for Consumer Affairs and Public Destruction (CAPD), Choudhary Zulfkar Ali, said that the Department of Legal Metrology had received various complaints about the abuse of Ambuja Cement's dominant position by selling cement at different prices across the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The department said that it could not get a 'satisfactory' response from Ambuja Cement. As a result, a team of officers inspected Ambuja Cement's depot at Kunjwani and booked Ambuja Cement for gross violation of the Legal Metrology Act and Rules. They were also found to be in violation of the Competition Act of 2002 by selling their products deliberately at the predated price to sabotage the local competition. Zulfkar Ali said that, during the inspection, it was found that Ambuja Cement was selling the same batch of Pozolana Portland Cement in different coloured bags marked with different prices for Jammu and Kashmir. The bags were also found to weigh 400 – 600g less than the 50kg label, while mandatory declarations were also not marked as per the provisions of the Packaged Commodity Rules.
A seizure memo has been issued and the cement sales have been stopped until Ambuja Cement provides the reasons for the discrepancies, according to Zulfkar Ali.
