COIMBATORE: A delegation of officebearers of Open End Spinning Mills Association (OSMA) called on electricity minister Thangam Thennarasu on Monday and submitted a petition reiterating their demand for withdrawal of peak hour charges and fixed demand charges.
Speaking to TNIE, OSMA president G Arulmozhi said the minister informed that he had taken up the issue with chief minister M K Stalin and that he would announce a favourable decision soon. “We are spending from our pockets to install solar panels, and TANGEDCO levying Rooftop Solar Network charges is not fair. Currently, we are charged 96 paise per unit for HT electricity connection and Rs 1.36 per unit for LT electricity. The government must stop collecting these charges.”
“The HSN code for spinning mills was announced about 20 years ago. The OE mills were clubbed with regular spinning mills’ HSN code and it is yet to be changed,” he added.Apart from the electricity minister, the team met handloom textiles department commissioner Vallalar and principal secretary of the textiles department Dharmendra Pratap Yadav. They put forth demands including subsidies and schemes for OE mills & yarns, separate HSN (Harmonized System of Nomenclature) Code for OE mills, and stop collecting Rooftop Solar Network charges for solar panels.