Procurement of cotton: PCGA rejects stance of Aptma

Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has rejected the stance of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) on the procurement of cotton through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) describing it anti farmers stance and warned that cotton growers would shift themselves to other crops from cotton if their interest was not watched at this juncture.
A spokesman of PCGA said that government should safeguard the interest of 70 percent farmers instead of protecting the interest of handful individuals who were exploiting the situation. He said that Aptma was sucking the blood of cotton growers by developing a cartel and keeping the prices at the lowest ebb.
He warned that government would have to spend billions of dollars on the import of cotton from different countries if the farmers changed their crop. Criticising the Aptma, he said legislators even Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani realised the gravity of the situation and asked the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to lift cotton as second player and also asked the ministry of finance to release the sufficient funds for this purpose.
The spokesman further said that Chairman of Pakistan cotton forum Seth Muhammad Akbar who is in fact a representative of Aptma made an abortive attempt to push down the prices of cotton by presenting the exaggerated figures of production in the previous meeting of Cotton Crop Assessment Committee. Now he took a new turn when government asked the TCP to procure the surplus stock. Now Seth Akbar chairman of PSF tried to misguide the stakeholders as well as the government by saying the cotton production is not more than 12 million.
The spokesman said that Aptma was playing the game for its personal interest at the cost of the growers. This act is attributed as anti state and anti farmers. PCGA spokesman said that KCA was nothing other than conglomeration of some brokers and exporters who were playing the game at the cost of millions of farmers who produce the cotton and run the textile mills. He said that PCGA would not let anyone to exploit the farmers and harming their interest. He also levelled the allegation of tax evasion on textile millers.
Spokesman said that textile millers should purchase the cotton at international if they were sincere to the farmers which should not be less than 6,300/ maund but Aptma member were purchasing the cotton at Rs 4,800 per maund and they were doing the economic exploitation of agriculture sector. He said that textile mills owners did not pay huge amount of Rs 55 billion in national treasury, which was deducted from the ginners at the rate of one percent. The spokesman said that government should take effective measures to recover the huge amount from the textile millers otherwise Chief Justice of Pakistan should take suo motu action to recover the default amount with interest.
Spokesman said that farmers associations should come forward for the security and safety of the growers because influential people were trying to fleece them. He said that Aptma should wage struggle to reduce the power tariff, taxes and levies to lessen their cost of production and to compete in the international market, instead of cutting the throat of the farmers by keeping the price at the lowest ebb.