The Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) has rejected the stance of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) and Karachi Cotton Association (KCA) on procurement of cotton through Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), describing it as anti-farmers stance and warned that cotton growers would shift to other crops from cotton if their interest was not watched at this juncture.
A spokesman of PCGA said that the government should safeguard the interest of 70 percent farmers instead of protecting the interest of a handful individuals who are exploiting the situation. He said that Aptma was sucking the blood of cotton growers by developing cartel and keeping the prices at the lowest level.
He warned that the government would have to spend billions of dollars on import of cotton from different countries if the farmers changed their crop.
Criticising Aptma, he said that legislators, even the Prime Minister realised the gravity of the situation and asked the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to lift cotton as second player and also asked the ministry of finance to release sufficient funds for this purpose
The spokesman further said that the chairman of Pakistan cotton forum, Muhammad Akbar, who is in fact a representative of Aptma, made an abortive attempt to push down the prices of cotton by presenting the exaggerated figures of production in the previous meeting of Cotton Crop Assessment Committee. Now he took a new turn when the government asked the TCP to procure the surplus stock. Now Akbar tried to misguide the stakeholders as well as the government by saying that cotton production is not more than 12 million.
The spokesman said that Aptma was playing the game for its interest at the cost of the growers. This act is attributed as anti-state and anti-farmers. PCGA spokesman said that KCA was nothing other than conglomeration of some brokers and exporters who were playing the game at the cost of millions of farmers who produce the cotton and run the textile mills. He said that PCGA would not let anyone exploit the farmers and harm their interest.
He also levelled the allegation of tax evasion on textile millers. He said that textile millers should purchase the cotton at international rate if they were sincere to the farmers which should not be less than Rs 6,300/maund but Aptma members were purchasing cotton at Rs 4800 per maund and they were doing the economic exploitation of agriculture sector. He said that textile mills owners did not pay huge amount of Rs 55 billion in national treasury which was deducted from the ginners at the rate of one percent.
The Spokesman said that the government should take effective measures to recover the huge amount from the textile millers otherwise Chief Justice of Pakistan should take suo motu action to recover the default amount with interest. He said that farmers associations should come forward for the security and safety of the growers because influential people were trying to fleece them.
He said that Aptma should wage struggle to reduce the power tariff, taxes and levies to lessen their cost of production and to compete in the international market, instead of cutting the throat of the farmers by keeping the price at the lowest level.