Cotton procurement: Ministry against TCP intervention, National Assembly panel told

The Ministry of Textile Industries Tuesday termed the cotton market as stable and discouraged Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) market intervention for cotton procurement. This was informed while briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile Industry, which met with Muhammad Shafqat Hayat Khan in the chair to discuss cotton intervention price. Ministry officials informed the committee that seed cotton prices are stable in the country and currently being traded at up to Rs 3,200 per 40 kg.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile Industry in its meeting held on June 2, 2015 had unanimously agreed to fix the minimum guaranteed/intervention price of cotton @ of Rs 3,200 per 40 kg for the financial year 2015-16 after considering the cost of production. The Ministry submitted that as regards the implementation status of the recommendations, this Ministry had prepared a draft summary for the ECC of the Cabinet by proposing that TCP may procure seed cotton equivalent to one million bales initially at the intervention price of Rs 3,000 per 40/kg during the cotton crop season 2015-16. The said summary was sent to the Prime Minister's Office for approval being Minister In-charge for Textile Industry before its submission to the ECC of the Cabinet on 01-09-2015.
In response, Prime Minister's office had returned the summary with remarks that Prime Minister had announced a comprehensive package for agriculture sector which also included a subsidy regime on cotton. That office had further advised to focus on implementation of package announced by the Prime Minister. The said package was implemented by the provincial governments. The above position is submitted for consideration of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Textile Industry.
The committee was given a briefing on Plastics Technology Centre (PTC). The Director PTC briefed the committee in detail about the issues being faced by his organisation. He said that after the withdrawal of assistance by NTU, PTC staffs are without salaries since May 2016. Further due to budgetary constraints activities are completely shutdown, future of students is at stake and industrial services provided across the country are come to a halt.
Therefore, in order to find a better solution of the issue the committee directed the Secretary Textile Industry to personally visit the PTC. Consequent upon submission of the report of the secretary, the committee will visit the PTC at a later stage. Further, in this regard, the committee directed the Director PTC to take all stakeholders on board and consider their recommendations in this regard. The committee assured its full support to resolve all the issues.