NE BUSINES BUREAU
COIMBATORE, APRIL 20
South India Spinners Association (SISPA), representing the MSME spinning industries in Tamil Nadu, on Monday asked a state Minister for remedial measures to safeguard industries as well as the livelihood of lakhs of workers.
In a letter written to the State Electricity Minister K Thangamani, SISPA president N Murugesan requested him to sanction six equal instalments for payment of electricity bills for March 2020, irrespective of the consumers (LT, LTCT and HT) without levying belated payment surcharge (BPSC) or any other additional surcharge. Or otherwise it may be deducted from the additional current consumption, Murugesan said.
In view of MSME industries using power only for security and lighting purposes, and not consuming the entire sanctioned demand, the minister should advise TANGEDCO to collect the minimum electricity charges for the recorded (actual) demand and not for the sanctioned demand during the lockdown period, he said.
SISPA also requested the minister to adopt the same procedure for at least six months, since availability of workforce and saleability of finished products are uncertain after the lockdown period, which would help overcome the financial crisis after the post-shutdown.
The 40-day nationwide lockdown, closing of borders between districts and states has affected the highly labour, capital intensive textile spinning sector and has affected the revenue of the entire textile value chain.
Considering this, SISPA requests the Minister to kindly support at this critical moment to safeguard the industries and the millions of the workers in the nation and issue suitable orders to TANGEDCO as early as possible, Murugesan said in his representation.