Kishore Tiwari, President, The Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalamban Mission (VNSSM) has urged Prime Minister Narender Modi to consider the plight of Indian farmers before taking any decision on revoking the import duty on cotton. He says, current market rate of Rs 8,000-11,000/quintal has brought some relief to the peasantry reeling under the pandemic since the past two years.
However, the cotton and textile-garment industries keen to import cheaper cotton from Pakistan-China and dump it in India, which will again plummet prices below Rs 4000/quintal, not only spelling doom for local farmers but also fueling a fresh crisis in farmlands, he adds.
In order to ensure justice to Indian farmers, he demanded the import duty be further hiked to 18 per cent to make it on par with the global markets, any move to remove or slash import duties will not only directly benefit the economies of both Pakistan and China, but prove extremely disastrous to Indian farmers who could be left with no other options but to kill themselves.
