Surat: Textile processors in the country’s largest man-made fabric (MMF) in the city have unanimously decided to increase job charges by Rs2 per metre on processing of all kinds of finished fabrics from May 15.
A meeting in this regard was held under the aegis of South Gujarat Textile Processors’ Association (SGTPA) on Friday. The hike in job charges is attributed to increase in average cost of dyes, chemicals, coal and wages of textile workers.

The SGTPA office-bearers said there was an average increase of 25% in dyes, around 15% in chemical and Rs1,500 per tonne in coal price. There has also been a steep increase in labour charges in the processing sector.
At present, MMF cluster in the city manufactures around two crore metre of fabrics per day. There are 6.5 lakh powerloom weaving machines, out of which around 3.5 lakh machines have been shut in the last few months.
There are around 400 textile dyeing and printing mills located in the city, including Sachin and Pandesara and on the outskirts at Palsana and Kadodara.
SGTPA president Jitu Vakharia told TOI: “We are compelled to hike job charges to sustain the processing sector from slowdown and because of increase in cost of raw materials. The hike in job charges will effectively increase the per metre cost of the finished fabrics in the range of 50 paise to Rs3. We understand the ongoing situation in the textile sector. We are hoping that the production of MMF fabric will pick up pace in the upcoming festival season.”
Pandesara Weavers Cooperative Society president Ashish Gujarati said: “The textile sector is passing through a rough patch. The entire powerloom sector is operating only one shift for eight hours to curtail production. The hike in processing job charges is only going to impact the industry further.”

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