All Pakistan Textile Mills Association''s Chairman SM Tanveer has said the government''s intervention to the free-market mechanism is imprudent as there is a move to procure seed cotton (Phutti) equivalent to one million bales at the support price of Rs 3,000 per 40 kilogrammes.
He told a hurriedly-called press conference at the Association''s Punjab Office on Friday, which also drew in Chairman of the Punjab Chapter Seth Muhammad Akbar, Aamir Fayyaz and Ali Pervez, that the cost of production for cotton growers was very high, as the price of urea had been increased by Rs 150 per bag and diesel prices had been jacked up by 45 percent, which had put the cotton farmers into trouble.
He recalled that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) had procured 90,000 cotton seed last year and incurred a loss of one billion rupees, and demanded that an independent inquiry should be made in that regard. He also raised the question that why the TCP was repeating the same mistake that year when the last year procurement was yet lying with it, and lamented that the corporation was toeing a wrong policy in a situation when the exports during the outgoing fiscal had dropped by 17 percent.
"If this move is for the benefit of small growers then the government should procure total production of 14 million bales and supply it to the textile industry on the international price," he proposed. He said cotton farmers, like the textile industry, were facing the dilemma of rising cost of production and the government should reduce their cost of inputs by providing a direct support on electricity and fertiliser. "Any such intervention to the free-market mechanism will be detrimental to the textile industry, already facing crisis because of the viability issues," he said. He said 30 percent of the production capacity was already impaired and the industry would be unable to procure cotton.