The competitiveness of predominantly MSME based textile industry in Tamil Nadu that accounts 45% of the spinning capacity, 22% of the weaving capacity, 70% of the knitted garment manufacturing capacity, 40% of home textiles manufacturing capacity has been significantly affected owing to constant increase in the power tariff made by the Government. The industry has been pleading the Government to avoid increasing the demand charges that got increased from Rs.350/MW to Rs.608/MW during the last four years with an increase of 74%, the energy charges also got increased from Rs.6.35/unit to Rs.7.50/unit for the HT consumers, an increase of 18%. Tamil Nadu is the only State having the policy of increasing the power tariff upto 6% linking to Cost-of-Living Index has been implemented that had greatly affected all the power intensive sectors especially the textile industry. Power cost of textile industry accounts almost 40-45% of the total cost of production. The power tariff also got significantly increased for the LTCT and the domestic consumers. The steep increase in power tariff is one of the main root causes for closure of several thousands of MSME units in the State, resulting in job losses to several lakhs of people apart from affecting the revenue to the exchequer.
SIMA delegation met the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on 20th May 2026 and pleaded not to increase the power tariff during the current year, not only to sustain the survival of the textile industry in Tamil Nadu but also to grab the emerging global opportunities and plan investments under the various schemes announced by the Government of India & the Government of Tamil Nadu. The Hon’ble Chief Minister and the Hon’ble Minister for Energy Resources and Law had positively responded to the pleas made by SIMA.
In a press release issued here today, Mr. Durai Palanisamy, Chairman, SIMA has profusely thanked the Hon’ble Chief Minister Thiru. C. Joseph Vijay and Hon’ble Minister for Energy Resources and Law, Thiru R. Nirmalkumar for the announcement that no power tariff increase will be implemented by the Government for the current year. He has also appreciated the various proactive initiatives taken by energy department including the release of White Paper and also long term plan to make TANGEDCO financially viable, complete all the maintenance and backlog projects in a time bound manner and ensure win-win strategy both for the consumers and TANGEDCO.
Mr Durai has stated that the announcement made by the Government of Tamil Nadu today is a step in the right direction, enabling achievement of 1.5 Trillion Dollar economy by 2035 by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
