New Delhi, May 30 (KNN) Union Minister of Textiles, Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal directed the officials on Sunday to finalise a decision at the earliest with regards to the extension of removal of import duty on cotton till December 31, 2022.

During an interactive meeting with the newly constituted Textile Advisory Group at IMC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mumbai, the minister exhorted that containment of factors impinging on productivity need to be tackled in time bound project mode manner and the industry should participate in self-regulatory mode.

The Ginning segment should take responsibility and make pheromone trap technology mandatory to monitor and prevent spread of Pink Bollworm pest attack from Ginneries and oil extraction units to cotton crop in farmers’ fields, he said.

He also suggested that everyone be sensitized for compulsory use of pheromone trap technology through the wide network of the Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., combined with efforts of the State Governments in this regard.

The Minister also urged the industry to develop models for improving Ginning efficiency and outturn as he emphasized the need for protecting cotton crop from pink bollworm attack with contributions from Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., Cotton Association of India, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry and the Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council.

Addressing the need of accuracy of statistics across the value chain to enable policy decision, trade facilitation, traceability etc., and the minister directed that a portal be created with inputs of Cotton Association, Ginners as well as Confederation of Indian Textile Industry & the Southern India Mills’ Association.

The portal to work on self-compliance mode. If persuasion and self-compliance do not yield results then ‘disincentives’ can be built in the systems like Cotton Corporation of India Ltd., not to do any transactions with such defaulter and any Govt. benefits be linked to submission of details, he added.

He also emphasized to do campaigns in farming areas to control sale of spurious illegal seeds.

While addressing the approaches for augmentation in short term by import, Secretary, Textiles Upendra Prasad Singh advised industry to approach Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare for procedural requirements to enable import from some destinations. 

The meeting was co-ordinated jointly by the Textile Commissioner and Cotton Corporation of India Ltd.  (KNN Bureau)