The respondent companies were issued notices on January 17 by the MRTPC for not responding to certain queries arising from an inquiry about the hike in cement prices.

The commission said, the relevant documents which had been made a part of the case were not supplied to them and only a probe letter was issued.

The two other companies which were directed to do the same were Gujarat Ambuja and Cement India Limited. The commission further asked the Director (Research) to send the copies of those documents to the five cement companies and listed the case for next hearing on January 25th. Earlier, the two-member bench comprising of MRTPC chairman M Lal and member RL Sudhir observed that during the inquiry certain queries had been made to the manufacturers but they had not responded to the same.

The bench observed, "as such, the investigation could not be completed as a result of which the preliminary investigation report is not submitted."

The Director who was carrying out the investigation on the basis of a complaint filed by SS Khosla, chief commissioner of customs and central excise, said, that increase in the price of the cement had gone up by over 40 per cent within a month.

He also announced that cement manufacturers had decided to stop cement supply to Maharashtra for a week with effect from November 27 to December 3 last year.

(PTI)