Tamil Nadu's state-owned electricity distribution company, TANGEDCO, increased the power tariff by 4.83 % for domestic, commercial, and industrial users effective from July 1. Stressing that this move would cripple the MSMEs and push them to a level where they cannot do business, President of Recycle Textile Federation, M.Jayabal urged the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin to intervene and save the MSMEs by cancelling the hiked charges.

Mr.Jayabal said via a press release that the MSMEs in Tamil Nadu joined together to conduct multiple levels of peaceful protests to get relief from erstwhile hiked EB charges. While that gave them a short respite, the government did not cancel the demand charges that were hiked by 433%. "This was one of our long-pending demands and because of its non-cancellation, we must pay Rs.17,136 every month whether we operate or not," Mr.Jayabal said.

Amidst such a time, this latest announcement by the government has come as a major shock to the whole MSME sector.  

"Prior to the Lok Sabha Polls 2024, when the ministers-in-charge came to seek our support, they assured us that the requests of the MSMEs will be given consideration after the election.  The ruling government's party received 40/40 in the Lok Sabha Polls and also won the by-polls in Vikaravandi. We expected that some good announcement from the government will be made but this announcement that TANGEDCO is increasing the power tariff by 4.83 % for domestic, commercial, and industrial users is a huge blow for us, and we never expected this," he said.

Because of this, 3.36 lakh LTCT consumers and 2600 companies belonging to the manufacturing sector that uses HT connections have been and will continue to get affected in a big way. 

Hence we sincerely request the honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to cancel the Fixed Charges and also cancel the networking charges collected from industries that install rooftop solar energy panels.

The state government should support us in this regard so that we can face competition in a fair manner. MSMEs in other states get many subsidies from their respective governments and pose a tough challenge to Tamil Nadu.  If our government fails to heed to these demands, then the MSMEs will have no option but to organize protests once again.