Save Cotton Farmers; Reinstate Import Duties on Cotton
14 April, 2022
The All India Kisan Sabha condemns the unilateral decision of the Narendra Modi led BJP Government at the behest of corporate textile companies to exempt all cotton imports from customs duties from 14th April to 30th September, 2022. Cotton imports were being taxed at about 11 percent, including cess and surcharges, in India. This move comes without ensuring assured remunerative prices and procurement of cotton grown by farmers in India. It is likely to lead to an inflow of cheap cotton from China, Brazil United States of America and other places. In the absence of an effective procurement and a Price Stabilisation Fund to ward off adverse impact of such inflow on prices, this could lead to a further burden on the crisis-ridden cotton farmers in our country. It should not be forgotten that the cotton-belt in India is having the highest number of suicides by farmers in distress.
The BJP Government claims that this decision has been necessitated to help the textile industry cope with the raw material shortages. The Finance Ministry says that the scrapping of import duties was necessitated due to below expected yields in the country and surge in domestic cotton prices. On the pretext that the move is to ease the pressure on domestic textile industries’ export competitiveness vis-à-vis fellow competitors, it goes on to the unfounded claim that it would also provide relief to the consumers. It is a well-known fact that the big corporate textile industries never transfer benefits of cheaper raw materials to consumers as they are driven only by the motive of profit maximisation.
This decision of the BJP Government will spell disaster for the cotton farmers of our country who already are in acute crisis and unable to realise remunerative prices. There is no protection guaranteed to the cotton farmer in the form of assured procurement at remunerative prices at least one and a half times the cost of production as of now. Inflow of raw cotton will lead to a further crash in prices and in absence of effective price stabilisation; the burden of such crashes will fall on the poor farmers of India. This is the experience when import duty of raw silk was done away with. AIKS demands that the BJP Government must withdraw this decision, reinstate import duties on cotton and make arrangements to procure farmers’ produce at remunerative prices. AIKS demands that the Government should instead of foregoing revenue by scrapping of import duties should incentivise farmers. AIKS calls upon its units in the cotton growing States to rise in protest against the insensitive decision.
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Ashok Dhawale Hannan Mollah
President General Secretary
