"Thus, in course of 12 months as many as as 90 mills had closed down their operation in the organised sector alone. Besides, an unknown but large number of small units having less than 5,000 spinldes were also closed," he said.

The scenario in West Bengal is no better. "Out of the 22 private sector textile mills in the state, 6 mills had remained closed for a long time and only 16 mills were running. Out of these, as many as 7 mills - 5 spinning units and 2 composite mills - were undersuspension of work for quite some time due to uneconomic working conditions and heavy financial losses. Only 9 units continued with its operations, but below their maximum capacity," Moondra said.

He also pointed out that during the last two decades there has been practically no growth in the textile industry of West Bengal. "While considerable spinning capacity has been built-up in the neighbouring states of Orissa, Bihar and Assam during this period, only two spinning units have been set up in the state," Moondra said.

According to him high incidence of sales tax on stores, spares, colours, chemicals, lubricants and other consumables had virtually crippled the industry in West Bengal. "At present, sales tax, including surcharge, on items consumed by the textile industry in West Bengal is as high as 13.8 per cent against the central sales tax of only 4 per cent," the association's president said.

The association also urged upon the state government to allow the units to setup their own captive powergenerating plants. "Power cost is one of the major cost factors of the textile industry. In other states more and more power generating sets are being used. The cost of power through these generating sets work out to Rs 2.40 per unit compared to the power rates in West Bengal, which ranges from Rs 3.60 to Rs 4.10 per unit," Moondra said.

Dwelling on the low productivity in the mills located in the state, Moondra said that to better productivity and rational wage structure, the association served a notice last year under section 9A of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, to all the textile workers' federations. However, there was no positive response.

However, he appreciated the Technology Upgradation Fund (TUF), which has been recently launched by the Union ministry of textiles. Moondra hoped that increasing number of mills would avial the concessional available in this scheme for modernising their units.