COIMBATORE: Like other industries in the district,
micro industries too have started to feel the pinch of rising price of raw materials.
To tide over the current crisis and minimize the loss, micro industries in the district have demanded the
product manufacturers to accept rise in price of spare parts supplied to them by 30%.
Following the increase in price of raw materials, the product manufacturers had increased the price of their products by considerable percentage but most of them are not ready to buy spare parts with revised price hike of 30%, they said.
District president of
Tamil Nadu Association of Cottage and Tiny Enterprises (TACT) J James said, “We have been supplying spare parts to product manufacturers like pump sets and wet grinders, with a marginal profit of just 8%. With an average increase in the price of raw materials by 25%, we were forced to bear huge loss as the product manufacturers do not accept our revised price of spare parts.”
Explaining that the number of inquiries has fallen considerably in the recent times when the industries had been recovering from the
Covid-19 pandemic, he said that even those who place orders want the industries to supply the products for the price that was quoted months ago and are not considering the increase in price of raw materials.
“Following the usage of automatic machinery, companies providing job orders to micro industries had provided Rs 300 as labour’s wage per hour. But now, they have reduced it to Rs 150 to Rs 180. In this rate, it is impossible for the industries to sustain because they will have to pay wages to the labours, electricity bill and loan. That’s why we have been demanding the manufacturers to increase the
labour wage by 50%,” he added.
The members also demanded the central government to set up a micro industry park at 25 to 30km away from the corporation limit as most of the industries are functioning in rental building and are paying up to Rs 20,000 as monthly rent.
Pointing out that the loan that was announced during the pandemic time for the industries is applicable only to those who had already taken a bank loan, James said that the government should announce a separate scheme for all the industries and include it in their election manifesto.
The district has about 10,000 to 15,000 micro industries doing spare parts and another 20,000 industries doing job orders.