Sindh has opposed the levying of the cotton standardisation fee without the payment of premium to cotton producers and ginners.
The cotton standardisation fee (CSF) was proposed to be levied at the ginning stage in October by the federal textile ministry. However, it required the secretaries of Sindh and Punjab agriculture departments to link the renewal of the working licences of cotton ginning factories with a CSF payment of Rs5 per bale at the original rate.
The ministry is not only interested in restoring the CSF — which was earlier suspended for one season under the clean cotton programme — but also plans to raise it to Rs20. It also intends to recover Rs316.91m of CSF dues from ginners for the 2008-09 and 2012-13 seasons.
In October, the federal ministry expressed its concern to the Sindh agriculture department regarding high contamination levels and lack of required grading. Standardisation — an issue of proper packaging of cotton bales — would only be resolved once ginners are made to avail the services of the Pakistan Cotton Standardisation Institute (PCSI) while paying the CSF.
