Powerloom weavers federation plea to reduce power tariff

TN Powerloom Weavers Federation appealed to the government to withdraw the power tariff hike for powerloom sector.

At the federation meeting held here on Friday, the federation president Dr MS Mathivanan said ''as powerloom industry is providing lot of job opportunities, the Central and state governments should provide necessary assistance to the industry. 

The Tamil Nadu government has now increased the electricity tariff by 70 paise per unit for the power loom sector, increasing the cost of woven fabric further. So, the government should reconsider this and reduce the tariff.  

Free power supply to the industry should be hiked to 1000 units once in 2 months from 750 units as per the poll promise. Export of raw cotton and cotton yarn should be banned. Handloom, power loom and knitwear industries require cotton yarn in large quantities as raw material. 

There is a shortage of raw cotton and cotton yarn due to which its price is increasing. Recently, the Central Government's Cotton Advisory Committee has approved the export of 40 lakh bales of raw cotton. It is estimated that large domestic mills require 307 lakh bales and small mills require 24 lakhs. 

But, small mills have more spindles and need more yarn. Its requirements are not properly calculated. By exporting 40 lakh bales, there would be yarn shortage in the country.

So, quality yarn is not available locally and the price of yarn also increases due to scarcity. For example, Rs 100 can be availed as forex per kg of raw cotton export, Rs 200 for exporting yarn, Rs 400 to 500 for exporting fabrics. 

So,  export of fabric should be promoted instead of raw cotton and  yarn. Powerloom Service Centres and textile research institutes should be upgraded, more service centres be established and training of powerloom weavers be given in technical institutes, he pleaded.