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'Cotton export gains be spent on growers welfare'

AMER SIAL

ISLAMABAD: The benefit gained from the cotton export should be spent on the betterment of cotton growers, an economist said while talking to Business Recorder.

He proposed that the government should decrease the rate of interest either on the loans procured by cotton growers from ADBP or in their water bills.

The economist said the cotton handling charges by TCP were not more than one cent per pound while it is earning seven cents per pound by exporting cotton at a rate of 46 cents per pound.

He said that due to cotton crisis nearly Rs 25 billion were shifted to spinners from the growers and this, he predicted, would lead to increase in rural poverty.

The cotton production this year has been assessed at more than 10.5 million bales as the domestic consumption is no more than 8.5 million bales. The surplus two million bales are expected to get a bargain as the prices in the international market are on the rise.