Mixed Reaction To Increase Of MSP For Cotton Farmers

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Mixed Reaction To Increase Of MSP For Cotton Farmers

Atul Ganatra, President of Cotton Association of India welcomed the moves made by the recently concluded Union Budget by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. He said, it’s good for the cotton industry as the government has increased the minimum support price (MSP) of cotton to 150 percent. He also hailed the move by the government to invest INR 7,000 plus crores package for the textile industry and said it was a robust increase from the previous year’s INR 6,000 crore in the previous year’s budget.

“This will be a boost to the textile industry as cotton is directly related to it and will serve the cotton sector well,” he added. Confederation of Indian Textile Industry chairman, Sanjay Jain called it a welcome move and said that the government has issued several beneficial measures for the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and as 99% of the textile industry falls under MSMEs it will be good for the industry overall.

However, the reactions to the Union Budget on textiles was mixed as some expressed the apprehension that increasing the MSP for cotton would force MSMEs to shell out more money to purchase cotton from the farmers and this will affect their competitiveness in the domestic as well as the export segments.