Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Govt Must To Curb Cotton Exports - July 29 , 2008

New Delhi: After having made registration mandatory for all cotton shipments, the Union Government is now conceiving quantitative limits on its exports. There is a proposal now to fix a quantitative ceiling of 80 lakh bales on exports of raw cotton for the current cotton year ending September 30. The proposal was apparently talked at a recent meeting of the Committee of Secretaries and it has been sent to the Agriculture Ministry for further comments.

The Agriculture Ministry is hoped to come out with its views before the Commerce Ministry can proceed further on the move. On July 24, the Government made it mandatory for all cotton exports to be registered with the Textile Commissioner before their shipment. In its notification, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) also said cotton consignments should be approved by Customs authorities only after checking that the contracts had been registered.

These restrictions have come within 20 days after the Government scrapped the 14 per cent import duty on raw cotton and withdrew 1 per cent export incentive to boost domestic supplies and soften domestic prices. Though the Cotton Advisory Board approximated exports at 65 lakh bales this season, the textile industry sees shipments around 100 lakh bales.

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