The Southern India Mills’ Association based in Coimbatore has appealed to the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for financial relief measures and exemption of import duty on Extra Long Staple (ELS) cotton. A delegation from SIMA met her at Coimbatore on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum.

The association’s chairman SK Sundararaman in a release said that the country produces around 5 lakh bales of ELS cotton as against the requirement of 20 lakh bales. Indian exporters have established their market share in the manufacture of superfine cotton textiles made out of ELS fibre, particularly the PIMA cotton produced in the US and GIZA cotton in Egypt.

Also Read | New SIMA chairman urges govt to announce new technology mission for cotton

SIMA appealed to the Finance Minister to exempt the American PIMA and Egyptian GIZA ELS cotton from the import duty as India does not produce similar quality cotton, and therefore will not affect the farmers. India consumes around 45 per cent of the PIMA and GIZA cotton produced annually. The import duty removal is essential to sustain the market share already established by India, Sundararaman said.

The association also sought conversion of Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme short-term loans offered as a Covid relief measure with a repayment period of three years to six years term loan. This is to reduce the financial burden for the textile units and avoid becoming NPAs.

Also Read | Texprocil seeks duty-free import of ELS cotton

SIMA Chairman has pointed out that the steep increase in power tariff for the SME spinning mills upto ₹2.35 per unit and for HT and EHT consumers by ₹1 per unit has increased the cost of production significantly as power accounts over 40 per cent of the total manufacturing cost.

SIMA has appealed to the Centre to exempt the cotton from 11 per cent import duty during April to October (off-season) as was done during the cotton seasons 2021-22, the release said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW