A Better Cover, For All That

A Better Cover, For All That Hansavivek HINDUSTAN LEVER had the advantage last year of a record crop of oilseeds and higher imports of oils. It now apprehends a scarcity of soap-making oils if the imports of oils and fats are reduced following the cut in foreign aid. The company continues to encourage production and use of forest crop oils, rice bran oil, etc, as indigenous alternatives, but it warns that margins will fall and production suffer "unless the industry is permitted to recover at least the increased cost resulting from the shortage of imported oils". HL hopes that adequate reliefs will be provided under the informal price control system following the study by the Costs and Prices Bureau, to meet the considerable inflation in manufacturing and distribution cost of soap. The company also complains that Government has not yet announced its decision on the Tariff Commission's report and that, in the meantime, margins on vanaspati have deteriorated. It says the current pricing formula does not allow for the sharp rise in the cost of processing and distributing vanaspati that has taken place over several years. Margins on baby food have also been steadily eroded, as the "small increase" in price allowed by government has not suffici- ently compensated for "rapidly rising costs''. Sales of convenience foods have continued to fall "below expectations".