The Prime Minister, Mr Manmohan Singh, has directed that the Group of
Ministers (GoM) should urgently review the move to ban cotton exports on Friday.
The PM’s directive on Wednesday follows a request from Congress leaders in Gujarat and Maharashtra seeking immediate removal of the ban on the export of cotton.
“The PM has given directions that a GoM should review this decision urgently on March 9,” a PMO statement said. The ban was imposed by the Commerce Ministry on Monday to help improve domestic supplies.
A Group of Ministers, including the Finance Minster, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, and the Commerce Minister, Mr Anand Sharma, will meet on Friday to review the ban on cotton exports.
On Tuesday, the Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, had objected to the ban on exports, stating that it would affect cotton growers, and sought the PM’s intervention in the issue. Even the Gujarat Chief
Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, had protested the Government’s move to curb exports.
The Textiles Ministry had said that almost 94 lakh bales had been shipped out against the estimated export surplus of 84 lakh bales, thereby reducing the carryover stocks to 33 lakh bales for the next season. The Ministry expects the exports to reach 100 lakh bales by mid-March 2012, thereby reducing the domestic inventories and said the decision to ban exports took into account the trend of domestic consumption and depletion of domestic availability.