As a first step towards this, the Southern India Spinning Mills' Association(Sima) is holding a meeting with weavers' societies and members of PowerloomDevelopment and Export Promotion Council (Pdexcil). Understandably, thespinning industry's attempt to initiate a dialogue on cone dyeing, whichreportedly finds a favourable mention in the Sathyam Committee report too,is to get out of the decades-old hank yarn obligation. The statutoryobligation, brought in 1979, requires spinning mills to pack 50 per cent ofthe yarn sold in domestic market in the hank form. Moreover, 80 per cent ofthis has to be of counts 40s and below.

Based on the outcome of the dialogue, Sima plans to present a proposal tothe government. ``We will create an awareness on the advantages of conedyeing process among the weavers. The quality of cloth will be better, therewill be no pollution and cost could be reduced,'' Sima spokesperson PRSubramanian said. ``We found that conversion from hank yarn dyeing to coneyarn dyeing will help us save raw materials, water and chemicals.

The only hitch is creation of large yarn dyeing facility near the weavingcentres. If it is done on a co-operative basis in an industrial estate -with a common boiler, common softening plant and a common effluent treatmentplant - the cost could be brought down,'' Sima chairman M Ramaswami said.However, one basic hitch that the textile industry would face in it'sefforts to popularise cone dyeing is the excise duty differential (hank yarnis exempt from excise duty).

Sima, it may be noted, had made an earlier attempt to tackle the issue ofhank yarn obligation around four years back. It had taken up a pilot projectin Andhra Pradesh to supply cone yarn to weaving societies which wouldconvert them into hank yarn and use them within the society. The associationhad then pointed out that the idea would generate rural employment,especially for womenfolk, and help the handloom societies solve the problemof count mismatches.

Though the project took off with much fanfare, the excise duty differentialremained a stumbling block and Sima's venture in the backburner ever since.Had the project been successful and carried out in Tamil Nadu, the spinningindustry would have successfully found a way out of the statutory obligation.``Our aim it to make it a cost efficient one even with the excise duty oncone yarn. But if the government accepts our proposal and makes the duty forboth cone yarn and hank yarn uniform, there could be a rapid change-over tocone yarn dyeing,'' Ramaswami added.

However, Sima could face stiff opposition to it's idea from some of it's ownmembers who basically produce hank yarn. Varadaraja Textiles managingdirector D Varadarajan feels, ``any move to levy excise duty on hank yarnwould not be fair. The handloom weavers are poor and are not in a positionto afford even the current market prices for hank yarn. u '' According tohim, a pilot study should be conducted by any textile research body (couldbe Sitra) to convince the consumer of the yarn (weavers), the producer(spinning industry) and the end consumer of the fabric about the advantagesof replacing hank yarn with cone dyed yarn.

``All attempts to bring in cone dyeing in place of hank yarn would again bea failure in the absence of a proper research on the subject. The handloomweaver should not be burdened further,'' Varadarajan, a prominent hank yarnproducer, added.

It is claimed, around 50,000 people are working on export items out of the1.75 lakh workers employed in the handlooms in the state. The wages rangefrom Rs 30 a day to Rs 110 a day.