Confederation of Indian Textile Industry has welcomed the decisions of government to abolish import duty on cotton and Draw Back on cotton export. In a statement issued here, Shri P.D.Patodia, Chairman, CITI stated that about 4500 textile mills throughout the country observed a one-day closure today to attract the attention of government to the serious problems that the industry is facing because of unreasonably high cotton prices.
He added that because of speculation in the market by international traders, not only cotton prices sky rocketed, but cotton disappeared from the market, creating an artificial shortage in spite of an all time high record in cotton production in the country.
Shri Patodia stated that the two decisions announced by the government today have addressed the cotton issue substantially. However, proper monitoring of cotton exports and calibration of the quantity of cotton export on the basis of domestic demand are issues that still need to be addressed. Shri Patodia reiterated the demand of CITI that exportable surplus of cotton should be assessed on a regular basis and export quantities should be released periodically, based on such assessment.
CITI Chairman thanked the Member Associations of CITI and their member mills for actively participating in the one-day closure and the government for responding promptly and positively to the major requests of the industry. He hoped that the remaining decisions – relating to registration of cotton export contracts and limiting the quantity of cotton exports to the exportable surplus available – will also be notified by government immediately.
Shri Patodia also requested government to address some of the other serious problems faced by the textile industry such as low availability and high cost of power, infrastructure deficit and transaction costs that have eroded our cost competitiveness in the international markets.
He observed that the industry's request for reimbursement of state level duties to exporters of textile products is still pending with government.
Confederation of Indian Textile Industry