With the Tamil Nadu government planning to come out with a new industrial policy, textile industry associations have urged the government to announce measures to reduce the power cost and encourage investments.

The Southern India Mills Association said the textile industry, which is labour-intensive, will benefit from a hybrid incentive structure that combines upfront capital subsidy, power tariff support, and technology upgrade assistance.

Upfront capital support helps improve project viability, particularly in spinning, weaving, processing, garmenting, technical textiles and textile machinery manufacturing. In addition, power constitutes a significant portion of manufacturing costs and therefore competitive power tariff support and incentives for renewable energy adoption are essential to enhance cost competitiveness, it said.

The SIMA added that employment-linked incentives should form an integral part of the policy to encourage large-scale job creation, particularly for women and skilled workers.

The Recycling Textile Federation called for measures to permit private power procurement and abolish HT-equivalent demand charges for LT CT consumers.

It also appealed to the government to waive renewable energy wheeling charges, strengthen the infrastructure at industrial estates and establish district-level commercial complexes to provide a platform for industries in the State to market their products.