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Govt urged to ask TCP to sell cotton at less profit

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: The Council of Textile Associations (CTA) has urged the government to direct the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) not to hold its cotton stock but sell it in the domestic market after adding minimum profit and storage charges.

S. M. A Rizvi, Convenor CTA, said in a statement that the release of cotton by the TCP should be a continuous process so that the prices of raw cotton remained low and consequently yarn was available at cheap rates so that the value added textile could be in a position to compete in the world market.

He said that inspite of a good crop and low price on which the cotton was purchased by the spinners, the value added textile industry did not benefit from it. The industry had expected that the cotton yarn prices would go down by about 40 percent but the spinners made a reduction of about 7 to 10 percent in the months of November and December 1999. By the end of January 2000 the prices again went up to the 1998 level of Rs. 300 per 10 lb.

He said that the arguments of the spinners was that the price of cotton had again gone up and they could not afford to bring the price of yarn down under the present circumstances. They also argued that big stocks were being held by TCP and they were not releasing the same in the market.