Ceat not to lower tyre prices

Kolkata, March 10 : Tyre maker Ceat is not considering lowering prices of tyres despite a cut in excise duty in the central budget 2010-11, a company official said Wednesday.

"We do not see the excise duty cut going to impact tyre prices as prices of raw material like rubber are spiralling up," said Subrata Basu, head of specialty, truck and bus radial tyres.

Most tyre makers had raised prices by 7-10 percent in December after a rise in rubber prices.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in his budget proposals last month, had halved the central excise duty on latex and rubber thread to 4 percent from 8 percent.

Here to announce sponsorship of an award to be given to transporters, Basu said Ceat's upcoming plant at Halol in Gujarat would start rolling out passenger car radials first.

Radials for trucks and buses would be manufactured in the later half of 2010-11, he added.

Ceat had earlier said the Halol plant would start production in the July-September period.