The Textile Ministry has invited comments from various stakeholders on new legislation that aims to set up an accurate data collection system on cotton production and stock availability in the country.

The draft Cotton Trade (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2012 has been uploaded on the website of the Textile Ministry for public comments.

“We will assess comments of cotton industry stakeholders before finalising the draft bill,” a senior official said.

The draft bill has been drafted against the backdrop of differences in cotton output estimates made by the Textiles Ministry and Agriculture Ministry for this crop year.

The ban on cotton exports that was imposed on fears of domestic shortages, despite record output, in the absence of accurate data lasted only a week.

The Textiles Ministry has drafted the new legislation as at present there is no statutory framework for collecting the statistical data on cotton from ginning and pressing factories as well as cotton yarn output from the textiles mills.

Due to lack of realistic data, it has become difficult for the Cotton Advisory Board (CAB) to assess the production and consumption of raw cotton, the official said.

The CAB, which functions under the Textiles Ministry, had in January estimated a crop size of 34.5 million bales, but had to adjust its figures to the projection made by the Agriculture Ministry at 34 million bales.

The proposed bill seeks to ensure well-structured supply chain for cotton, textiles and facilitate better management of statistical data collection for more effective planning and policy formulation.

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