Knitwear exporters in Tirupur have urged the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms J. Jayalalithaa, to exempt exporting units in the district from power holiday on Friday.
The Tirupur Exporters' Association President, Mr A. Sakthivel, has in a communication to Ms Jayalalithaa pointed out that the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) announced power cuts of four hours a day and power holiday on Friday for Tirupur region.
“Since the power holiday is also on Sunday, the units here would be unable to withstand the situation and operate the units using captive power to meet the delivery schedule,” he said.
The cost of running on captive power adversely affected competitiveness of the units as power costs went up almost two and half times than the cost of supply from the grid, he added.
Slide in demand
“Exporting units are already facing enough problems because of the slide in the demand from the US and the EU due to recession, increase in processing charges, rising wage rates and transportation costs,” he said.