Date:30/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/30/stories/2008073050050100.htm

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SSIs for exemption from power holiday

Staff Reporter

Production has declined by 45 per cent
Loss due to power cuts is Rs.2,000 crore per annum

MADURAI: Associations of small and tiny units in Madurai district have demanded exemption from power holiday. Combined with increasing cost of raw materials and labour shortage, power cuts were rendering small units sick, they said.

Addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Madurai District Tiny and Small Scale Industries Association (MADITSSIA) vice-president N. Somasundaram said that 14 associations in the district would take out a rally on Thursday to the Collectorate to submit their demands.

“SSIs in the State consume less than 10 per cent of power. They cannot afford generators and captive units,” he said. Apart from a full-day power holiday on Friday for Madurai, a two-hour power cut occurred every day. Also, units had been told not to operate between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Association secretary P. Sitaraman said that units were losing 60 hours every week. This was causing a 45 per cent decline in production. Industrialists in Madurai district alone were losing Rs. 2,000 crore in a year owing to power disruptions. The rubber sector accounted for half of this loss.

The association urged the State Government to table a white paper on power situation for the next 10 years.