SIMA plea to abolish market committee cess
The Southern India Mills’ Association has appealed to the State Government to remove cotton and cotton waste from the schedule of Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act.According to a release from the association, the State Government was collecting one per cent of the total value of purchase/sale of cotton and cotton waste as Market Committee fee under the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act. “We feel the Market Committee cess on cotton and cotton waste has outlived its purpose,” the press release said. The Central Government recently abolished the Textile Committee cess following a demand from the industry that the purpose of the cess outlived its utility. Similarly, the State Government should abolish the Market Committee cess.Further, the SIMA appealed to the Centre to include wind turbine generators in the Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme. “The lack of supply of quality power is a major concern to the industry.” Many of the association members had established wind mills with assistance under the technology upgradation scheme. But, now wind mills were removed from scheme. The association sought a mechanism that should be established wherein all the local levies and transaction costs incurred by the textile mills were reimbursed. Since the abolition of the textile quota, the textile industry was doing “extremely well”. Now the industry faced certain problems. Appreciation of rupee against U.S. dollar, increase in the bank interest rates and power were areas of concern. The Government and industry envisaged an increase share for the country in the global textile trade. An investment of nearly Rs. 2 lakh crore were needed during 2007-2012 for this. The pressure on costs had forced the companies to evolve innovative measures to reduce the costs. This had created a win-win situation for both the producer and the consumer.
