The Indian government currently plans neither to include cotton in the Essential Commodities Act nor to remove the Customs duty and Agriculture Infrastructure Development Cess on the import of the natural fibre, Minister of Textiles, Commerce and Food Piyush Goyal told the Rajya Sabha today.
“There is adequate availability of cotton in the country as the estimated cotton production is 341.91 lakh bales (170 kg) and consumption is 311 lakh bales,” he said in response to a question Abir Ranjan Biswas.
In a statement laid in the House, the Minister said the country exported 2,374.48 million sq m (msm) of cotton fabrics in 2021-22 fiscal compared with 1,770.37 msm in 2020-21.
Exports of cotton yarn last fiscal were 1.39 million tonnes against 1.011 million tonnes in 2020-21.
The response assumes significance in the wake of cotton prices ruling higher than global prices currently and the textile industry urging the Centre to scrap the import duty on cotton.
In view of high cotton prices, spinning mills are operating at 50-70 per cent of their capacity, while slack demand for yarn is also affecting the industry.