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Informist, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024

 

MUMBAI – The Cotton Association of India President Atul Ganatra at the association's annual general meeting held Tuesday urged the government to remove the 11% import duty on cotton in the upcoming Union Budget for 2025-26 (Apr-Mar).

 

"In order to facilitate our industry to compete internationally, it is necessary that import duty levied on cotton is removed without any further delay and I urge the Government to make necessary provisions for removal of import duty on cotton in our next Union Budget," Ganatra said, according to the speech document shared by the body.

 

The current import duty on cotton is 11%, which the government had imposed in the FY22 Union Budget. The 11% import duty consists of 5?sic customs duty, 5% agriculture infrastructure development cess, and 1% social welfare charge.

 

Ganatra said the entire cotton and textile industry, including the association, has made several representations to the government to remove the import duty on cotton, emphasising that the commodity has always been under the open general licence without any quantitative and qualitative restrictions for several decades in India. "We also sensitised the authorities that India requires imported cotton for value (in) addition to cater to international demand and imposition of import duty would reduce the competitiveness of our textile industry," he said.

 

However, on Feb. 19, the government had removed import duty on extra-long staple cotton of above 32 millimetres staple length, while the duty continued to be levied on remaining cotton parameters.

 

DRIP IRRIGATION

Ganatra also requested the government to provide budgetary support of at least INR 5.0 billion to help farmers adopt the drip irrigation system, as the cost of installation of this system in India is 'very high'. 

 

Cotton is completely dependent on rainfall and the crop does not get adequate water during flowering and fruiting stages, when the requirement for water is more than 80% of the total water requirement of the cotton crop, the president said. "Due to this, cotton yield in rain-fed areas is substantially lower compared to irrigated belts, especially in Maharashtra where about 95% area is rain-fed, and in scanty-water availability areas of states like Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Gujarat."

 

Adapting such a system will not only ensure efficient water resource management but also boost cotton yields, Ganatra said. "Apart from substantially increasing our cotton yield, drip irrigation will also prove to be an effective tool to save 40-60% of total water required for irrigation through flood."  End

 

Reported by J. Navya Sruthi

Edited by Tanima Banerjee

 

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