Exempt textile mills from power tariff hike: SIMA

Pointing out that the textile industry is highly power intensive, the Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) has asked the Tamil Nadu government to exempt the mills from any proposed power tariff hike. Seeking the exemption, S Dinakaran, chairman of SIMA stated that the textile industry consumes around 900 units per MW, per hour at a constant load round the clock throughout the year while the consumption by other sectors are much less.

"We have appealed to all the chief ministers of southern states to immediately plan and segregate the industry feeder from the rest so as to enable the HT industries to source uninterrupted power from the private parties and power exchanges. there is no justification for upward revision of tariff for the textile industry. Hence considering the grave crisis prevailing in the textile industry in Tamil Nadu, we have appealed to the CM to exempt the textile industry from any proposed tariff hike," said Dinakaran.

According to SIMA, the textile industry is undergoing a grave crisis due to both internal and external factors such as global market slow down, particularly in EU and US, unprecedented volatility in cotton and yarn prices etc.

The predominantly cotton based textile industry in Tamil Nadu has been facing severe power shortage for the last few years and presently it faces 50 per cent shortage.