Federation of Tamil Nadu Powerloom Weavers Associations protested over the electricity tariff hike today and presented a petition to all District Collectors across the state.
After submitting a petition to Erode Collector, the federation state president LKM Suresh said TN has 6 lakh looms and around 20 lakh workers are employed. Each family has 5 members. So, one crore people depend on this industry. Last 6 years demonetisation, GST tax increase, rise in price of yarn, corona, inadequate price for cloth etc, the industry was affected much.
Due to loss of business many people sold power looms as scrap to old iron shop.Thousands of power loom weavers have lost their jobs and were suffering. In this environment, 32% hike in electricity tariff has been announced.
The minister has announced that the tariff hike will be 70 paisa per unit and the electricity board says an hike of Rs 1.42 per unit. Due to this, the industry is in confusion and many people will leave the industry.
There will be no profit in this industry. According to the quality of cloth, the price will increase by at least 25 paise per meter. Consumers will be affected.
DMK promised to increase the free electricity to 1000 units from 750 units and conduct a monthly electricity tariff survey. But, it did not do that. Instead, the electricity tariff has been increased drastically which is unprecedented in any state. So, if the electricity tariff hike is not withdrawn we will announce the next stage of protest. Central government is giving subsidy to generate solar power. For that , TNEB has to provide NETT meters.
But, it is not provided. So, we are not benefited under the scheme. If government provides loan with subsidy to generate solar power, our monthly electricity bill will be reduced by 50% after using solar power. The solar power unit cost is Rs 3 only. TNEB buys power at a cost of Rs 8 per unit. So, the government would also gain much, he said.