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Central Chairman APTMA, M. Yasin Siddik, has drawn government's attention towards the alleged misuse of cotton cess by the Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC). Also, an APTMA nominee as Vice President of PCCC should be installed without delay, he added. He demanded an immediate third-party audit of the PCCC funds and inquiry into its misappropriation and misuse as there is no audit Sub-Committee and no internal audit function in place.
He said the APTMA had proposed a Centre of Excellence at the CCRI Multan through restructuring of PCCC by strengthening and activating it to pursue a dynamic cotton research and development programme to boost cotton production and its quality in the country.
Accordingly, APTMA had agreed to increase Cotton Cess from Rs 20 per bale to Rs 50 per bale subject to the condition that the PCCC will be managed professionally to undertake state-of-the-art cotton research centre. He said APTMA had engaged M/s A. F. Ferguson & Co, Chartered Accountants (Member Firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers) to prepare a plan to restructure PCCC on modern lines.
He said the objective of restructuring of PCCC was to increase cotton lint yield to 1000kg/hectare, achieve 25 million cotton bales by 2020, sustainable cotton research through public private partnership, synergy with international research institutes for technology collaborations, technology transfer and development of high yield/disease/pest resistant, region specific, vertical and hybrid cotton seed.
Siddik said that "APTMA was perturbed over the stagnant crop size of cotton which is a clear barometer of the effectiveness of the PCCC and no improvement in per acre yield for the last several years, had voluntarily offered to pay Cotton Cess more than double the amount being deducted as it was extremely concerned over no improvement in cotton crop." Yasin added that country's per acre yield and cotton crop remain dismal.
In the year 2000-01 crop size of India was 14 million bales of 170kgs whereas it was 10.681 million bales as far as Pakistan was concerned. Similarly, increase in yield per hectare for the same period in case of Pakistan was only 23 per cent primarily because of the use of unauthorised BT seed whereas for India it was 75 per cent, he added.
Pakistan Institute of Cotton Research & Technology (PICR&T) carries out external testing of fiber. As this institute is not operative therefore, equipments worth millions of rupees have been placed in junk yard and its 31 employees are carrying out minimal work, he added.
Further, PCCC does not have a separate biotech lab for conducting present day cotton research. In addition, various research functions are not properly established including Virology, Chemical Studies and Farm Management. Meanwhile, Chairman APTMA Punjab S M Tanveer has urged Chief Minister Punjab to intervene to save the institution of cotton research to increase cotton production from 13 million bales to 25 million bales by 2020, as 70 per cent cotton production and consumption exist in Punjab.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2013

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