SME Times News Bureau | 18 Jun, 2012
Industry seeks amendment in the Cotton Trade Bill 2012 to ensure that the Bill does not lead to over regulation of the cotton trade and also results in an independent system of data collection for cotton trade.
FICCI in its representation to Ministry of Textiles on the Cotton Trade (Development & Regulation) Bill 2012 has observed that certain clauses of the Bill need to be amended to ensure that industry can easily implement, monitor and follow the rules.
"The objective of the Bill should be to build a robust and an independent market intelligence system for statistics on cotton production and consumption which is important for the growth of the textile industry," FICCI said in a statement.
FICCI added that the current form of the Bill emphasises regulation of the industry, rather than developing an independent system of data collection.
The principal objective of this Bill is to monitor cotton demand/supply in the country and to ensure that minimum standards for packaging are followed in cotton ginning and pressing, the chamber mentioned.
The Bill needs to strike a balance such that it does not become a means to regulate trade, emphasised FICCI.
In its representation FICCI also added that the bill places a heavy burden of compliance on stakeholders. Every ginning factory has to maintain registers as prescribed by the Textiles Commissioner and also other ginning registers under the Bill. Moreover, these have to be maintained for three years. And, the monthly returns have to be submitted by cotton ginning factories and textile mills which will further add to the compliance burden on the industry.
The Bill also mandates that every owner or occupier of a cotton processing factory shall produce the Ginning or Press register for inspection whenever required to do so. Here, emphasis should be on self-certification rather than on inspection as proposed in the Bill. These provisions need to be reviewed and less stringent penalties imposed, FICCI suggested.
Further, application should be e-based and development bar-codes system with a unique electronic identifier at the ginning and pressing factories are essential. The objective is to have real time data since outdated information will not be useful for the purpose of any policy decision, FICCI said.
Also, surveys should be conducted on a regular and timely basis. In fact, proper instrument should be provided for data collection for correct estimation of data, the industry body added.
