Union govt may ban cotton export to control price hike

Coimbatore: The state government on Tuesday decided to send an all-party delegation of MPs to meet Union ministers, even as the Centre said it might impose a temporary ban on cotton export to rein in rising prices.
At a meeting that was held in Delhi on the day, Union minister for textiles, industry and commerce Piyush Goyal told the stakeholders that the Centre was taking steps to bring down the prices. At least 40 members from Tamil Nadu attended the meeting.
Raja M Shanmugham, president, Tirupur Exporters’ Association, who attended the meeting, said, “The minister said a ban, similar to the one on wheat export, may temporarily come into force, if the spinning mills and ginners fail to restrain their export commitments of cotton and yarn. He told the mills to restrain cotton and yarn export, as there is a need for these commodities in the domestic market.”
The minister assured that the cotton shipment, which is still under the bill of lading, would be allowed to be imported on zero duty.
At the meeting, Raja said Goyal hinted at creating the cotton council (an advisory body) under the chairmanship of Suresh Kotak, a senior member in Mumbai, for the welfare of the entire value chain.
Raja said he had requested the minister to include the garment industry under the ECLGS scheme, in which up to 50% withdrawal of liquidity could happen as in the case of the hospitality industry.
Meanwhile, the state government decided to send an all-party delegation of MPs from western Tamil Nadu to meet Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman and textiles minister Piyush Goyal in Delhi on Wednesday, seeking solid steps to control the skyrocketing cotton and yarn prices. DMK parliamentary party deputy leader Kanimozhi would lead the delegation.
In a press statement on Tuesday, the state government said chief minister M K Stalin, who earlier wrote to the Centre seeking measures to rein in cotton and yarn prices, had instructed the MPs to meet the Union ministers in Delhi to find a speedy solution to the issue.
“The cotton and yarn price hike has driven textile units in the western region to launch a strike that will incur them further financial losses,” it said.
On the second day of the strike on Tuesday, nearly 90% of the 20,000-odd textile and allied units in and around Tirupur district remained closed.
CPM members and representatives of various textile and exporters’ associations staged a hunger strike in front of the city corporation’s main office in Tirupur, urging the Union government to immediately ban cotton export, place cotton on the list of essential commodities and permanently exempt import duty on cotton, among other demands.
Coimbatore MP PR Natarajan, Tiruppur Exporters’ Association vice president M Veluswamy, Tiruppur Exporters and Manufacturers’ Association president MP Muthurathinam, Tirupur Domestic Garments Manufacturers’ Association secretary Robo D Ravichandran, among several others took part in the agitation.
In Coimbatore, members of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) staged a demonstration against the cotton and yarn prices on Masakalipalayam Road.