Southern India Mills body seeks duty exemption on cotton imports for next season

Coimbatore, Sept 8 (KNN) The government should not levy import duty on cotton to enable the industry to achieve its potential growth rate and sustain its financial viability, said Ravi Sam, chairman of Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) in a press release on Wednesday.

With cotton prices on a downtrend for the last few days, SIMA has appealed to the Union government not to levy import duty on cotton during the next cotton season, which starts in October.

This will also help in protecting the jobs of over 35 million people employed in the cotton textile value chain.

“Following the removal of import duty on cotton in April and changes brought about in MCX cotton trading, with the efforts of Union Textile Minister Piyush Goyal, domestic prices have softened,” he said.

MCX cotton prices have reduced over 25 per cent in the last one week. Domestic cotton arrivals have started early and the cotton prices have reduced from nearly Rs 1, 00,000 to Rs 90,000 a candy.

It is anticipated that the Cotton prices even during the beginning of the cotton season (October 2022 to September 2023) when arrivals will be high, will be more than the minimum support price. Hence, duty free imports will not affect farmers.

“If needed, government can consider levying the duty only during the peak arrivals of the season (December - March) to avoid recurrence of crisis during the end of cotton season 2022-2023, he added.

Currently the price of Indian cotton is 15-20 per cent higher as compared to the international prices, especially with countries such as Pakistan and China.  (KNN Bureau)