Government bans fresh cotton exports for now

New Delhi, Mar 12 (ANI): Union Textile Secretary Kiran Dhingra on Monday informed that India would ban fresh cotton exports and refrain from issuing new registrations till further orders.

"New registrations according to the notification will be suspended till further orders," she said.

Dhingra further said the Central Government would permit only quantities already registered but not shipped, fuelling uncertainties as the world's second-biggest producer continues to flip-flop with its trade policy.

"Those shipments which have not been done and which are still valid will be scrutinized and if they are found to be in order will be revalidated," she said.

The Cotton Advisory Board prepared the Cotton Budget for the cotton year 2011-12.

In arriving at a Cotton Export Policy, a balanced perspective is taken, carefully addressing the interests of all stakeholders including farmers, traders, yarn producers and the apparel industry.

Last year, raw cotton exports were of the order of 78 lakh bales and in this cotton year within five months, exports have crossed 95 lakh bales highest ever in the last ten years, even though the crop arrival estimates of cotton are the same.

The three Secretaries - Agriculture, Commerce and Textiles drew the attention of the Government that the exports had far exceeded the estimated exportable surplus, raising concerns on the adequate availability of cotton for domestic industry.

In this backdrop, the government had taken a decision to suspend the export of cotton given the sudden surge in cotton exports.

The informal Group of Ministers chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee met on March 9 to review the situation and a decision was taken to roll back the ban subject to certain conditions.

Today, DGFT has issued a notification which clarifies the position that exports orders already registered with DGFT so far but not yet exported will be expeditiously scrutinized to ensure that their papers are in order and revalidated.

The first priority will be given to those consignments, which have been handed over to Customs. The GoM is scheduled to meet within the next two weeks to assess the cotton budget afresh and take an appropriate policy view in the matter.

Meanwhile, the price situation in the 'mandis' is being closely monitored and the Cotton Corporation of India has been authorized to intervene for both commercial and MSP operations, wherever necessary. The Indian industry has reported that it is also in the market to buy. (ANI)