Jailesh Dalal, Director of Jaycee Cements & Steels Pvt Ltd, has been in the cement business for the past 30 years. The company’s clients include retailers, builders, developers, contractors, ready-mix manufacturers and corporates and it caters to the cement requirement of its clients throughout India. The company deals in all types of cement – OPC, PPC, PSC and mainly focuses on bulk cement sales. About the demand for various types of cements, Dalal said, "Demand for cement varies," and added, "The ready-mix segment requires OPC cement while all other segments have a mix demand of OPC/PPC/PSC cement. At the same time, the demand for blended cement is growing well due to awareness created by the manufacturers." Regarding the volatility of rates, he is of the view, "Volatility of cement rates does affect us as the customers are unhappy due to frequent changes in price." When asked about increasing sales, he said, "As cement distributors, we focus on offering services to our clients by way of competitive rates, timely deliveries, technical support and better working relationships which automatically give us better sales." About the benefits provided by the manufacturer, Dalal said, "Manufacturers do provide us with margins for our efforts but due to uncertain payment terms in the industry, it sweeps our margins which otherwise are also quite low. We require more respect from the industry by way of reasonable returns as growth of manufacturers should compliment with growth of cement distributors too." To avoid delays at toll post, Dalal suggests that since octroi naka consumes lot of time resulting in traffic blocks and fuel wastage it should be replaced with alternate levy to facilitate smooth movement of material. About excise duty on cement, Dalal is of the opinion that excise duty need to be simplified and rationalised and a single-point excise should be kept on the product in place of different variables kept presently.