The Assam state government of India has recently enforced a new policy, whereby it is now allowing containers to ferry only 15 tons of coal at a time, which is just one-third of what they used to ferry in the past. [break]
According to entrepreneurs, this has increased their cost of transportation and production dramatically. “Owing to the new policy, we now need to pay additional Rs 500 for every ton of coal import," said Murari Regmi, member of Brick Manufacturers´ Association of Koshi.
As a result, he said the brick manufacturers of the region are left with no option but to hike the prices of their products.
The Assam state government had reduced the transportation weight for the containers, citing that the 10-wheeler trucks ferrying such heavy consignments were causing serious damages to the roads.
The brick manufacturers in the region rely heavily on coals from Moghaigaun and Jogiguppa of Assam to bake the bricks as they are highly flammable and yield higher heat than coals supplied from other parts of India.
“As the new provision has caused the price of coal to soar, we are now forced to increase the price of bricks,” said Gyanendra Khatri, proprietor of Arun Bricks Factory. He disclosed that the manufacturers were currently undertaking exercises to identify the extent by which the price of bricks is to be increased.
“It is not decided yet as by how much the price should be increased. But the manufacturers are pressurizing us to increase the price,” Regmi said. He added that the brick kiln operators were under pressure to increase the price also because of the rise in labor cost they witnessed this season. "We had just increased the laborers´ wage by 25 percent,” Khatri added.
Kiln operators rely heavily on laborers coming from Kuch Bihar of West Bengal to produce the raw brick cake. Some 50 brick kilns operating in eastern part of Nepal hire more than 1,000 Indian laborers every season.
The price of A grade and B grade brick is currently priced Rs 10,500 and Rs 9,500 respectively per 1,000 pieces.
According to Brick Manufacturers´ Association of Koshi, there is a demand for 150 million pieces of bricks in the eastern region every year.
Manufacturers, however, have the capacity to supply only 100 million bricks.
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