With the crisis in the textile industry becoming more acute on account of the heavy accumulation of stocks, the Southern India Mill-owners’ Association to-day [April 24] directed its 175 member-mills in Madras, Kerala, Mysore, Andhra and Pondicherry to curtail their production by 33-1/3 per cent “until the position improves”. The member-mills will forthwith suspend production for two days in a week but will pay lay-off wages to their workers for the period of closure. The general body of the Association which met here [Coimbatore] to-day [April 24] under the Chairmanship of Mr. K. Sundaram, resolved also to close the mills for a day on April 27 as a token of protest against the high incidence of taxation imposed by the Union Government. The Association requested the Indian Cotton Mills Federation to press the Government of India to enact legislation for curtailment of yarn and cloth production on an all India basis to avoid regional imbalance. It decided to request the Reserve Bank of India to liberalise credit facilities for textile mills as well as yarn trade. The Association urged the Madras Government to license immediately the installation of 12,000 power looms allotted to this State to facilitate the consumption of yarn in the State to a great extent. The Association requested the Union Government to ban the installation of additional spindles for the present. Mr. K. Sundaram, Chairman of the SIMA, told Pressmen that the object of the two-day closure in a week was to keep the level of production at 60,000 bales a month which was considered “normal stocking”. The unsold and physical stocks with the member-mills which were of the order of 35,000 bales and 55,500 bales respectively at the end of February this year had mounted to 51,500 bales and 75,800 bales of 180 kg. each respectively on April 15. The value of the physical stock on hand to-day [April 24] was estimated at 12.3 crores. Asked how long he expected the two-day-a-week closure to last, Mr. Sundaram replied: “It all depends on how the market reacts.”
