Texprocil demands release of 50,000 cotton bales/day by CCI

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council today asked the government to instruct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to immediately start releasing at least 50,000 bales per day for a period of 100 days through e-auction to tide over cotton shortage.
"We have urged the government to instruct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to immediately start releasing at least 50,000 bales per day for a period of 100 days through E-auction directly to the actual users," Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) Chairman R K Dalmia said in a statement here.
He said it will help stabilise prices in the domestic markets besides ensuring availability of cotton to exporters.

If this is followed, then by the end of 100 days the season will finish and CCI will still be left with about 30 lakh bales of carry over stock, Dalmia said.
The cotton textiles industry is currently going through a serious situation due to non-availability of adequate quantity of cotton on account of the "Stop-Go" policy of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) in spite of holding high level of stock, Dalmia said.
Dalmia pointed out that CCI has procured 86 lakh bales of cotton under the Minimum Support Price (MSP) during the current season to protect the interest of the farmers. Out of this, CCI has offloaded only 3 lakh bales of cotton so far and is presently releasing between only 3000 to 5000 bales per day as against a stock of around 83 lakh bales.

This is only resulting in steep rise in prices besides creating shortage of good quality cotton for the textiles sector which in turn is adversely affecting the exports of yarn, fabrics & made-ups, said Dalmia .

Further, the international prices are rising and speculators are profiting by hedging and hoarding to the detriment of the industry, he said.
Dalmia pointed out that the Council has been repeatedly suggesting to the government that CCI should offload cotton during Feb-June every year to meet the demand of the industry and also to prevent traders from acquiring cotton cheaply and hoarding it.
In a cotton surplus country like India, Dalmia pointed out, the domestic cotton prices should remain lower than the international prices at all times. The CCI should follow a clear & transparent purchase & sale policy & not make adhoc decisions, pointed out Dalmia.

As per its charter, CCI's role is not only to procure
Cotton from farmers but also to ensure price stabilization.
"At a time when the industry is working towards realising the Prime Minister's goal of "Make in India", we cannot succeed if our raw material prices are higher than the international prices & artificial price rise is created by restricting supplies of available cotton with CCI," Dalmia said.