Textile Mills Strike
Textile mills in the State stopped production on Wednesday, protesting against the soaring cotton prices. Nearly 2,000 textile mills in the State stopped production on Wednesday, demanding that cotton exports be suspended till the end of this year. The production loss is estimated to be Rs. 200 crore. The chairmen of six major textile mill associations said in a statement that the one-day strike was to protest the spiralling cotton prices. Cotton exports this year were expected to be nearly 100 lakh bales as against the initial estimate of 65 lakh. As a result, the stock-to-use ratio (cotton available as stock) depleted to less than 20 per cent, while the competing countries maintained it at 40 per cent. This was one of the main reasons for the high prices. The domestic textile industry’s demands include zero duty on cotton import, withdrawal of export incentive for cotton, streamlining exports and reducing the margin money for working capital from 25 per cent to 10 per cent, at seven per cent interest, on a par with agricultural loan. Tamil Nadu has 19 million spindles of the total 39 million spindles in the country, employing five lakh workers. The mills in the State face frequent power cuts, too. A release from the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) said 4,500 mills across the country participated in the protest. The Central Government has brought down the duty on cotton imports to zero and withdrew the one per cent duty drawback (export incentive) offered for cotton exports, thus meeting two demands of the industry.
The textile associations welcomed the measures, saying this would create a level playing field in the globalised environment. CITI chairman P. D. Patodia hoped the other demands, especially restricting exports to surplus available and registration of export contracts, would also be met.One hundred and thirty-one mills in Dindigul district stopped production. Tamil Nadu Spinning Mills Association chief advisor K. Venkatachalam said the government’s response to the strike was promising.
