Raja M Shanmugham, President said meeting with Textile Industry Associations has been organized by Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance, Government of India to discuss the urgent measures to be taken to control the increasing of cotton and cotton yarn prices.
From Government of Tamilnadu front, Thiru. R. Gandhi, Hon’ble Minister for Handlooms and Textiles, Thiru. Tiruchi Shiva MP, Thiru. Dharmendra Pratap Yadav IAS., Principal Secretary, Handlooms, Handicrafts, Textiles and Khadi Department and Dr. Vallalar IAS., Commissioner (Textiles) also participated in the meeting.
In general, Thiru. R. Gandhi, Hon’ble Minister Thiru. Tiruchi Shiva MP and the participants appealed for removal of 11 percent import duty on cotton, removal of cotton from future trading and the need to redefine the role of CCI to control cotton prices.
Raja M Shanmugham said he has requested for the support through ECLGS to meet out the financial requirements of MSMEs. He further added that the Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance was concerned on the impact to farmers when the import duty on cotton is removed and finally requested to send a representation immediately.
Raja. M. Shanmugham said the following points have been represented for the consideration of Minister.
As the Farmers stand in the first leg, the Garmenting Industries stands at the last leg in the entire Textile Value Chain. Both are equally vulnerable always. Need to be hand held at the time of crisis. Further Garmenting Industries are made of predominantly by MSMEs. Since the orders are booked 3-6 months in advance could not withstand the continuous price hike what got witnessed in the last 15 months.
1) Exports of raw cotton and yarn that too our competitors need to be disincentiviced 2) Import duty on Cotton need to be lifted to maintain the International Parity. 3) Cotton being the main raw material for the entire Textile Value chain it should not be allowed to get traded in the Stock Exchanges on a notional basis, which creates an artificial demand affecting the entire value chain. Hence, removal of cotton from the commodities list is required. 4) Interest Equalization Scheme is to be restored which is the need of the hour. 5) Like the ECLGS which really helped the MSMEs to sustain in the trade from the impacts of Covid, an additional funds support need to be infused to the Garmenting Industry which are in a starving condition due to the continuous all round price hikes. For example, last year if one could buy 1kg of yarn for a price now could buy only 1/2 kg of it. 6) For all the above measures, if it has been countered that Farmers would get affected, then our wish and request is to raise the MSP to save their interest.
