The Hindu Business Line : Cenvat: Powerloom bodies threaten to swarm ballot

The Tamil Nadu Federation of the Powerloom Weavers' Associations has asked their members to field 500 candidates on behalf of the weavers' associations in Tiruchengodu Lok Sabha constituency.

Coimbatore , April 5

THE issue of `Cenvat' duty chain involving the textile industry refuses to die down in Tamil Nadu even after one full year of its coming into existence.

The next month's Lok Sabha elections have come in handy for those in the decentralised powerloom weaving industry, who are opposed to the `uninterrupted' excise duty (or the Cenvat duty) chain on powerloom weavers, to rake it up yet again. This time, it comes with some force.

The opponents of the `Cenvat' duty have threatened to field hundreds of candidates to oppose the official candidates of the ruling BJP-AIADMK's NDA alliance and the opposition Congress-DMK's DPA combine in constituencies having larger concentration of powerloom weaver-clusters in the State.

To translate their threat to reality, the Tamil Nadu Federation of the Powerloom Weavers' Associations has asked their members to field 500 candidates on behalf of the weavers' associations in one Lok Sabha constituency, the Tiruchengodu Lok Sabha seat. This area incidentally can well be considered the State's largest powerloom weavers belt.

The move has clearly unnerved the major political parties, which have despatched their crisis management team to meet the members of the Tiruchengodu-Erode-Komarapalayam powerloom weavers' bodies and persuade them against their attempt to `swarm' the ballot paper.

`We'll not budge from our stand of pooling candidates on behalf of various powerloom weavers' bodies to be fielded against the candidates of main opposition political parties in Tiruchangodu. We are also not ready to listen to the promises of the State political parties - either the DMK or the AIADMK - on resolving the issue as we know that only the Central Government has the powers to withdraw the `Cenvat' duty on powerloom fabrics, our main demand," said Mr R.S. Nataraja Mudaliar, president of the Erode-based Handloom Cloth Merchants' Association, spear-heading the anti-Cenvat' stir on behalf of the powerloom weavers in the State.

Talking to Business Line, Mr Mudaliar said that the powerloom regional bodies in the State were "betrayed" by State MPs last time as they failed to plead their cause in the Lok Sabha.

"Unless assurances came from both the BJP's top national leaders and Congress president, Ms Sonia Gandhi, that the `Cenvat' duty regime on powerloom would be withdrawn irrespective of which alliance combine wins the election, we will not go back from our resolve to field as many candidates as possible in each `powerloom constituencies,'" he said.

On footing the deposit for each of the 500 (non-serious) candidates, he said local powerloom associations in the belt have been asked to each bear the nomination fee for specified number of candidates.

The Tamil Nadu powerloom weavers, especially those who are engaged in manufacture of self-designed/semi-processed woven fabric using the pre-processed/dyed yarn, are upset over the extension of the `Cenvat' excise duty chain on their manufacture. Their opposition to the excise duty is not as much on the 10 per cent excise levy per se on the manufacture of powerloom fabrics, as the "harassment" by the Central Excise officials enforcing the levy administration, the weavers claim.

Mr Mudaliar says the small powerloom cloth manufacturers involved in conversion of fabrics into self-design clothing using such simple processes like calendaring/ironing cannot be goaded into paying excise duty nor they can be asked to maintain tax books. They are all such small and tiny textile traders that they can ill-afford to adhere to the excise rules, he claims.

Last weekend, the AIADMK leadership had deputed at least three State Ministers, including Mr C. Ponnaiyan, Finance Minister, and the Handloom and Textiles Minister, Mr Somasundaram, to meet the Erode/Tiruchengodu-based powerloom weavers.

More Stories on : Textiles | Politics | Excise and Customs | Tamil Nadu

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