Economy & Market

A “Missed Opportunity to Spur The Growth”

Published

9 years ago

June 30, 2017

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From the day it had been conceived perhaps a decade back promoted as "One Nation, One Tax", GST has been controversial to say the least. Apart from the quite unusual fact that alternately, every political party has supported and opposed it by turns, the industry bodies in particular have over-hyped the importance of GST, with many of them and their members going to the extent of saying that implementation of GST will add a clear 2 per cent to the GDP growth rates, which, by the way, has already been added through other innovative means.

Mind you, GST is no rocket science, because not only that similar unified tax regimes have done well in other countries, but also that there is a huge amount of precedences and learnings already available as if as a "help-book" to guide us in formulating our GST framework and to ensure its success. But, as the D-Day draws nigh, we seem to be getting into a more and more mixed, uncertain and complex situation around GST implementation and its aftermath, all of which is no longer pure optimism, but some kind of skepticism. Instead of one or even two-third tax rates, we now have many, and we also seem to have added many many forms and returns and processes, all of which would negate the case for simplification. If we are lucky, we may even see a continuation of the ubiquitous inter-state checkpoints, which our truckers love to hate.

If one could summarise, GST was aimed at creating a common marketplace out of the States of India, integrate and simplify taxes of all kinds for goods and services, drastically reduce paperwork, increase transparency, curb corruption in tax administration – all of which expectations could be summed up in one strategic objective – improvement of ‘ease-of-doing business’. At the same time, there perhaps was another target in the mind of the policymakers, a more tactical one at that, which was to make sure that GST does not push up the prices of goods and services used by commoners, and be inflation neutral, if not inflation positive. So what do the cement sector players have to say about the impending imposition of GST, in the context of these two broad objectives?

The Government has already gone to town announcing that cement, smartphones and medical devices will be cheaper under GST, which pre-supposes that by elimination, the Government itself is admitting that prices of all other products will remain static (theoretically possible, but practically, not) or will go up. Cement being one of the chosen few, one of the luckier items, so to say, the industry should be extremely happy under the circumstances. Apparently, and unfortunately that is not the case. The industry thinks that its net tax incidence will go up, and this thought is reflected in the various feedbacks that are coming through at this stage.

For example, IIFL has stated that tax incidence on cement industry will go up, and it goes on to quote an unnamed research agency to say that cement companies may go for a price hike to mitigate the increased GST rate and hence there won’t be any earnings impact. The Cement Manufacturers’ Association has lamented, "High GST on cement is a missed opportunity to spur growth." Clearly, there are contrasting and opposing viewpoints regarding GST vis-a-vis cement, and the jury is still out on what is the reality. There is but no doubt whatsoever, that the industry is desperately looking forward to some healthy growth in demand, even as it has declined by 3.7 per cent in April 2017.

However, in the interim, as we wait for clarity to emerge, the pitch has been queered by the unusual "Anti-Profiteering" clause inserted in the GST Bill, and the domestic as well as international business community will be watching very closely how this clause is interpreted and enforced, going forward.

Sumit Banerjee Chairman, Editorial Advisory Board

Economy & Market

TSR Will Define Which Cement Companies Win India’s Net-Zero Race

Published

3 days ago

April 27, 2026

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Jignesh Kundaria, Director and CEO, Fornnax Technology

India is simultaneously grappling with two crises: a mounting waste emergency and an urgent need to decarbonise its most carbon-intensive industries. The cement sector, the second-largest in the world and the backbone of the nation’s infrastructure ambitions, sits at the centre of both. It consumes enormous quantities of fossil fuel, and it has the technical capacity to consume something else entirely: the waste our cities cannot get rid of.

According to CPCB and NITI Aayog projections, India generates approximately 62.4 million tonnes of municipal solid waste annually, with that figure expected to reach 165 million tonnes by 2030. Much of this waste is energy-rich and non-recyclable. At the same time, cement kilns operate at material temperatures of approximately 1,450 degrees Celsius, with gas temperatures reaching 2,000 degrees. This high-temperature environment is ideal for co-processing, ensuring the complete thermal destruction of organic compounds without generating toxic residues. The physics are in our favour. The infrastructure is not.

Pre-processing is not the support act for co-processing. It is the main event. Get the particle size wrong, get the moisture wrong, get the calorific value wrong and your kiln thermal stability will suffer the consequences.

The Regulatory Push Is Real

The Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules 2026 mandate that cement plants progressively replace solid fossil fuels with Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), starting at a 5 per cent baseline and scaling to 15 per cent within six years. NITI Aayog’s 2026 Roadmap for Cement Sector Decarbonisation targets 20 to 25 per cent Thermal Substitution Rate (TSR) by 2030. Beyond compliance, every tonne of coal replaced by RDF generates measurable carbon reductions which is monetisable under India’s emerging Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS). TSR is no longer a sustainability metric. It is a financial lever.

Yet our own field assessments across multiple Indian cement plants reveal a sobering reality: the primary barrier to scaling AFR adoption is not waste availability. It is the fragmented and under-engineered pre-processing ecosystem that sits between the waste and the kiln.

Why Indian Waste Is a Different Engineering Problem

Indian municipal solid waste is not the material that imported shredding equipment was designed for. Our waste streams frequently exceed 40 per cent to 50 per cent moisture content, particularly during monsoon cycles, saturated with abrasive inerts including sand, glass, and stone. Plants relying on imported OEM equipment face months of downtime awaiting proprietary spare parts. Machines built for segregated, low-moisture waste fail quickly and disrupt the entire pre-processing operation in Indian conditions.

The two most common failures we observe are what I call the biting teeth problem and the chewing teeth problem. Plants relying solely on a primary shredder reduce bulk waste to large fractions, but the output remains too coarse for stable kiln combustion. Others attempt to use a secondary shredder as a standalone unit without a primary stage to pre-size the feed, leading to catastrophic mechanical failure. When both stages are present but mismatched in throughput capacity, the system becomes a bottleneck. Achieving the 40 to 70 tonnes per hour required for meaningful coal displacement demands a precisely coordinated two-stage process.

Engineering a Made-in-India Answer

At Fornnax, our response to these challenges is grounded in one principle: Indian waste demands Indian engineering. Our systems are built around feedstock homogeneity, the holy grail of kiln stability. Consistent particle size and predictable calorific value are the foundation of stable kiln combustion. Without them, no TSR target is achievable at scale.

Our SR-MAX2500 Dual Shaft Primary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive) processes raw, baled, or loosely mixed MSW, C&I waste, bulky waste, and plastics, reducing them to approximately 150 mm fractions at throughputs of up to 40 tonnes per hour. The R-MAX 3300 Single Shaft Secondary Shredder (Hydraulic Drive), introduced in 2025, takes that primary output and produces RDF fractions in the 30 to 80 mm range at up to 30 tonnes per hour, specifically optimised for consistent kiln feeding. We have also introduced electric drive configurations under the SR-100 HD series, with capacities between 5 and 40 tonnes per hour, already operational at a leading Indian waste-processing facility.

Looking ahead, Fornnax is expanding its portfolio with the upcoming SR-MAX3600 Hydraulic Drive primary shredder at up to 70 tonnes per hour and the R-MAX2100 Hydraulic drive secondary shredder at up to 20 tonnes per hour, designed specifically for the large-scale throughput that higher TSR ambitions require.

The Investment Case Is Now

The 2070 Net-Zero target is not a distant goal for India’s cement sector. It starts today, with decisions being made on the plant floor.

The SWM Rules 2026 are already in effect, requiring cement plants to replace coal with RDF. Carbon credit markets are opening up, and coal prices are not going to get cheaper. Every tonne of coal a cement plant replaces with waste-derived fuel saves money on one side and generates carbon credit revenue on the other. Pre-processing infrastructure is no longer just a compliance requirement. It is a business investment with a measurable return.

The good news is that nothing is missing. The technology works. The waste is available in every Indian city. The government has provided the policy direction. The only thing standing between where the industry is today and where it needs to be is the commitment to build the right infrastructure.

The cement companies that move now will not just meet the regulations. They will be ahead of every competitor that waits.

About The Author

Jignesh Kundaria is the Director and CEO of Fornnax Technology. Over an experience spanning more than two decades in the recycling industry, he has established himself as one of India’s foremost voices on waste-to-fuel technology and alternative fuel infrastructure.

Concrete

WCA Welcomes SiloConnect as associate corporate member

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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The World Cement Association (WCA) has announced SiloConnect as its newest associate corporate member, expanding its network of technology providers supporting digitalisation in the cement industry. SiloConnect offers smart sensor technology that provides real-time visibility of cement inventory levels at customer silos, enabling producers to monitor stock remotely and plan deliveries more efficiently. The solution helps companies move from reactive to proactive logistics, improving delivery planning, operational efficiency and safety by reducing manual inspections. The technology is already used by major cement producers such as Holcim, Cemex and Heidelberg Materials and is deployed across more than 30 countries worldwide.

Concrete

TotalEnergies and Holcim Launch Floating Solar Plant in Belgium

Published

2 weeks ago

April 13, 2026

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TotalEnergies and Holcim have commissioned a floating solar power plant in Obourg, Belgium, built on a rehabilitated former chalk quarry that has been converted into a lake. The project has a generation capacity of 31 MW and produces around 30 GWh of renewable electricity annually, which will be used to power Holcim’s nearby industrial operations. The project is currently the largest floating solar installation in Europe dedicated entirely to industrial self-consumption. To ensure minimal impact on the surrounding landscape, more than 700 metres of horizontal directional drilling were used to connect the solar installation to the electrical substation. The project reflects ongoing collaboration between the two companies to support industrial decarbonisation through renewable energy solutions and innovative infrastructure development.