Madurai
Madurai MP Su. Venkatesan has sought the intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi into certain “leakage of revenue” of Cotton Corporation of India that was established to ensure stability in the cotton prices and thereby benefit the farmers and textile industry.
In a letter written to the Prime Minister, Mr. Venkatesan said that Cotton Corporation had sold 50 lakh bales (or 23.20 lakh candies) of cotton to four select companies at a lower rate.
CCI had a record unsold stock of around 120 lakh bales and it decided to off-load large quantities to certain buyers during July and August 2020 at a discounted rate.
As against its prices of ₹ 38,000 a candy, CCI had sold 23.20 lakh candies of cotton with a discount of ₹ 1,500 a candy.
“This means the four buyers have made a profit of ₹ 696 crore,” he said. Moreover, the buyers were given special terms like deferred payment.
“Immediately after the sale of the cotton to the four buyers, the CCI started to increase prices of the cotton,” he said.
The price of the cotton that was around ₹ 37,500 in October first week has increased to ₹ 42,000 in November fourth week.
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP charged that the steep increase in price of cotton by CCI was to “facilitate these buyers to profit”.
Stating that the information was shocking, he said it required a probe.
He appealed to the Prime Minister to institute a probe on these transactions and bring the facts to the public domain.
He also wanted to ensure that CCI sold cotton only to the actual users and they would be allowed to select the quality of cotton to be bought.
Besides, there should be transparency in deciding minimum support price to the satisfaction of stakeholders.
Source: The Hindu, India Wednesday, 02 December 2020