The Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) has urged the Tamil Nadu government to exempt the textile industry from power tariff hike announced last week by Tamil Nadu Electricity Regulatory Commission (TNERC) as it would seriously affect the competitiveness of the textile mills in the state.
In a statement, SIMA chairman, Mr. T Rajkumar said the proposed hike in the rates of energy charges, demand charges and other rates would work out around Re 1 per unit which would increase the yarn price by Rs. 5.00 to Rs. 6.00 per kg for 40s count and would mean Rs. 1 crore to Rs. 1.5 crore additional cost burden for a 25,000 spindle spinning mill.
Mr. Rajkumar said the textile industry has been demanding a separate tariff or load factor incentive as it operates 24 x 7 throughout year and consume 900 to 950 units of power for one hour for every MW thus enabling the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited (TANGEDCO) to make substantial profit when compared to any other consumer.
He said the textile industry, being the largest consumer of TANGEDCO, deserves to have a special treatment and concession owing to its load factor, power factor, harmonics and other power quality parameters performance.
The textile industry is the only industry which has taken maximum care and invested huge money in non-conventional energy, both wind mill and solar power, apart from taking energy conservation measures to the maximum extent, maintaining unity power factor and lowest harmonics level, SIMA chairman said.
In view of these factors, Mr. Rajkumar appealed to the state’s chief minister to reconsider the proposed rates and exempt the textile industry from the hike, so as to enable the state to attract further investments. He also appealed to extend 20 per cent rebate for night hour consumption as the textile industry operates round the clock.