Thousands of powerloom units in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts that take up job work for large-scale cloth producers have decided not to pay the revised power tariff, protesting the steep increase in charges.
P. Kumarasamy, secretary of Coimbatore District Jobworking Powerloom Unit Owners' Association, told The Hindu on Tuesday that with the recent tariff revision, the units suffered 70 per cent to 300 per cent increase in power cost depending on the number of looms. The two districts had nearly two lakh powerlooms, with six to 16 looms in each industry.
The industries went without power for 10 to 12 hours and this had hit production by nearly 50 per cent. The units would not be able to pay the high power cost in such a scenario. Hence, the powerloom industries in the two districts had appealed to the State Government to reduce the power tariff for the sector to the earlier levels, he said.
