Despite power cuts lasting more than 10 hours a day, which have hit industrial operations, the district has seen a growth in industries.
According to data available with the District Industries’ Centre, the number of registered industries has increased by nearly 17 per cent during the last one year. Coimbatore District had 6,870 registered units in 2011-2012 and it went up to 8,091 in 2012-2013. The power subsidy and generator subsidy disbursed to industries went up more than 100 per cent. Applications were still pending and about Rs. 4 crore more was expected from the Government for generator subsidy.
The District Lead Bank Manager J. Vanangamudi said that the capacity for credit absorption by the small and medium-scale industries had also gone up.
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The annual credit plan projected nearly 40 per cent increase in credit off-take by the micro, small and medium-scale units this year. Loans would be taken to strengthen and improve the existing infrastructure and also for new units.
In 2012-2013, the district had achieved the projected credit off-take by this segment, he said.
The micro industries contended that the data does not reflect the field-level reality of the sector. Coimbatore District had an equal number of unregistered units and these industries were registering now to get bank loans and other benefits.
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Hence, all the new registrations were not new industries.
There was no system to register the units that were closing down or reducing operations.
Many micro industry owners had sold the machinery and moved over to other jobs, say representatives of micro industry associations.