COIMBATORE: The industries in Coimbatore district on Saturday listed out their demands to the Lok Sabha election manifesto-preparing committees of the DMK and the AIADMK.
The members of the Tamil Nadu Power Consumers Industry Federation (TNPCIF) and the Federation of Coimbatore Industries Associations (FOCIA) met with the DMK panel led by the party’s deputy general secretary and MP Kanimozhi and spoke in detail about the issues faced by the industry at present. They handed over to her a petition which included six major demands to the state government and nine major demands to the union government.
Speaking to TNIE, FOCIA and TNPCIF chief coordinator J James said that in the meeting with Kanimozhi, the industrialists demanded her to reconsider the revision in electricity power tariff. They asked her to bring the matter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s attention and make announcements with regard to it in the upcoming legislative assembly session.
“We have requested her to arrange a meeting between the industrialists and the CM soon. She has assured to arrange the meeting after the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly session. The MP also assured that she would speak with the electricity and MSME ministers and the officials and find a solution to the problem soon,” said James, adding, “We have demanded the AIADMK members too to raise the issue in the state legislative assembly and bring a special resolution regarding the power tariff hikes.
We also demanded them to speak out against the EB tariff revision in the upcoming budget session.” The industrialists also want the central government to reduce the GST rates for MSME which has been increased to 18%. Earlier, the tax rate (VAT) for the MSME sector and job orders was capped at 5%. But later, it has been raised to 18% and the industrialists want the centre to reduce the GST rate to 5%.
Some of the demands put forth by the industries to the state government include revoking the hike in the electricity fixed demand charges, withdrawing the plan to fix separate metres for peak hour consumption and collecting peak hour charges and providing subsidies for industrialists procuring machinery.
Other demands to the centre are on stopping banks from imposing penalty interest for loans that were taken by industries during the COVID-19 pandemic, fixing the interest rate as 5% for loans that industries borrow from the banks, appointing a separate minister and allotting separate funds for the MSME sector, allotting special funds for Coimbatore district to develop infrastructure and expediting the Coimbatore airport expansion works and developing it into an international airport.