The Ministry of Commerce, along with the Agriculture and Textiles Ministries, will hold a meeting next week to decide on the quantity of cotton, which will be allowed to be exported freely, said Rahul Khullar, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, here on Saturday.
Participating in an open house organised to clarify on the newly announced foreign trade policy, Dr. Khullar said the Agriculture Ministry would come up with the total cotton production estimate in the country. The Textiles Ministry would submit the quantity required for domestic consumption.
After arriving at the actual quantity, surplus from the cotton production would be allowed to be exported freely. For this there is no need to obtain a licence, pay customs duty or tax. “The objective of the meeting is to ensure balance of interest on both sides.” The government is not interested in allocating quota for cotton export. It will only fix the quantity to be exported freely up to a limited point, he said.
The new Foreign Trade Policy was formulated and announced to arrest the down trend in the exports, said P.K. Chaudhery, Additional Secretary and Director General of Foreign Trade. After announcing the new policy, a sectoral review was held and need-based additional changes were made.
With the government's initiative, the decline in the export was arrested and it started showing signs of improvement. In the new policy, more than 250 additional products were added. But, the additional support provided by the Finance Ministry could not be sustained, he said.
M. Rafeeque Ahmed, Chairman, TN Council, FICCI, and Ajai Sahai, Director General and CEO, Federation of Indian Export Organisation, were among those who spoke. The programme was jointly organised by the FIEO and FICCI.
