Texpreneurs Forum has appealed to the Minister of State, Ministry of Shipping Pon Radhakrishnan for exempting the cotton textile mills in the State from Cabotage Rule for a period of five years and permit the mills here to use foreign vessels for transporting cotton from Gujarat till the infrastructure is streamlined in the country.

The abnormal increase in diesel price and consequent increase in transportation cost has seriously impacted the competitiveness of the mill sector in the State, D Prabhu, Secretary, Texpreneurs Forum said and pointed out that against production of 5 lakh bales of cotton in TN, the spinning sector here consumed over 120 lakh bales annually.

Cotton is procured from Gujarat and Maharashtra and the mill sector spends Rs 40000 to Rs 50000 for transporting 50 bales (of 170 kgs each) by lorry from Mundra in Gujarat to Namakkal in TN. “It works to almost Rs 4.90 /kg of cotton.”

Whereas, the transportation cost for 150 bales (of 170 kg each) per container from Chennai port to China ranges between $100 and $350. This effectively works out to Rs 2.25 a kg, including the lorry freight from Namakkal to Chennai.

Suggesting the use of idle EXIM containers lying at West Coast ports to transport cotton bales to major textile clusters in TN to reduce transportation cost, industry representatives said these containers could be diverted to container deficit areas on its return. The present Cabotage Rule does not permit the use of foreign vessels in domestic transportation, Prabhu explained.

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