Involvement in Framing National Cotton Policy Was Seeked by PCGA

The Government of Pakistan should involve all stakeholders including the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) while devising the ‘National Cotton Policy’, PCGA chairman Mahesh Kumar said during a press conference.
 
Seeking inclusion of all stakeholders, the PCGA chairman said the policy should stretch to all areas of cotton trade including fixing of production target, fixation of support price and granting of import approvals.
 
Mr. Kumar said all the steps taken by the Government towards safeguarding the interests of cotton growers have proven ineffective, as textile producers import huge quantity of cotton in the name of free-trade.
 
Such unrecorded large-scale imports by textile mill owners results in piling up of cotton stocks in ginning factories, causing financial loss to ginners as well as farmers, he added.
 
The PCGA Chairman suggested that registration of all export contracts with the Export Development Board (EDB) should be made compulsory and exact figures of cotton imports should be furnished to the Textile Ministry and PCGA for incorporating it in crop data released on 1st and 15th of each month.
 
Mr. Kumar urged the Government to review waning cotton production in the wake of high taxes and levies, and the rise in power charges and petroleum products, which have pushed up the production cost by almost 70 percent, causing their profit margin to contract to zero level.
 
The PCGA chairman suggested that a scheme must be worked out for extending soft loans exclusively to PCGA members to help them in upgrading their ginning units to rise up to the challenges of World Trade Organization (WTO), and also to upgrade the standard of Pakistani cotton.
 
The loan extended should be refunded over next five years, by adjusting the same against production limit of individual ginners, he added.
 
Lastly, he even restated his demand for ensuring continuous power supply to ginning industry.