ICF seeks funds for ginners during cotton arrival period

05 Sep '12

2 min read

Stating that cotton ginners in the country each year spend about Rs. 480 billion for buying and ginning cotton during the first 16 weeks of cotton arrival, Indian Cotton Federation (ICF) President J Thulasidharan has called for facilitating funds to these ginners at concessional rates.

Responding to the call made during a conference on cotton, V Srinivas, Joint Secretary, Textile Ministry, directed to formulate a draft proposal in this regard, so that he can table the same before the Finance Ministry for necessary action.

Highlighting the need for in-time compilation of data on cotton crop, the Textile Ministry official said the Cotton Distribution (Collection of Statistics) Bill 2012 has already been formulated to facilitate a system for enhanced data transparency and ensure availability of accurate data for policy making.

He said they intend to introduce the legislation in the coming months, to bestow the country with a data collection system that would significantly strengthen its databases.

Further, he also assured ICF that all required action would be initiated in lines with their request for branding Indian cotton through Textile Export and Promotion Council, mainly in view of the fact that India exports about 12.7 million bales of cotton to world markets.

India’s innate strength in cotton yarn needs to be boosted through fabric manufacturing and processing, he noted.

Meanwhile, on the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI)’s SV Arumugam’s request for waiving the one percent Market Committee Cess, G Santhanam, Secretary, Textile and Handloom, Tamil Nadu Government gave an assurance to take up the issue with the state Chief Minister.

Mr. Arumugam also called on the Tamil Nadu government to slash sales tax on cotton yarn from the existing five percent to two percent, as it would help the state’s industry to better compete with other states like Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, which levy only two percent tax.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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