Lahore June 16 2025: Lahore High Court, dismisses appeal of cement companies for seeking waiver on imposition of royalty charges according to cement companies.
“As per channel checks, full bench of Lahore High Court has dismissed appeals by the Punjab based cement manufacturers and decided to continue with 6% royalty charge on ex-factory cement price imposed by Punjab government last year” states Mehroz Khan an analyst at Foundation Securities in its social media message.
“Companies may go for appeal in Supreme Court now, however, this decision to go for review is not final yet from cement manufacturers” states Nasheed Malik an analyst at Topline Securities in its research report.
“Recently, KPK Finance bill proposed an upward revision in royalty rates taking them from PKR 250/ton to PKR 350/ton for the KPK based cement manufacturers. This will be applicable on the consumption of raw materials (limestone & others) as previously applied hence there is no change in mechanism. Considering the same, there was an expectation that Punjab could change the mechanism and move to consumption-based royalty imposition but that has not materialized.” Mehroz added.
“Punjab based players could now knock the doors of Supreme Court as appeals are dismissed in Lahore High Court” he added.
“With this recent development the disparity between KPK and Punjab provinces remains intact” states in Mehroz concluding remarks.
“This disparity of ~PKR 1,000/ton in royalty is huge in our view” states Malik.
“The majority of the KPK based manufacturers sell a portion of their cement in Punjab also and this may provide them either an opportunity to sell higher volumes at lower price in pricing indiscipline environment” Malik added.
