Overview
- Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay, who wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, asked for the duty to be cut from 11% to zero to secure raw cotton supplies and protect jobs.
- The chief minister cited cotton rising about 25% in two months to Rs 67,700 per candy and yarn moving to Rs 330 per kg, which he linked to a production shortfall and heavy trading.
- Industry groups led by the Apparel Export Promotion Council and Tiruppur stakeholders, after Wednesday meetings with the commerce, agriculture, and textiles ministers, repeated the zero-duty demand.
- The councils reported 2025–26 cotton needs of about 337 lakh bales against arrivals near 292.15 lakh bales, a gap of roughly 45 lakh bales that they say strains spinning mills and exporters.
- A senior textiles official said the ministry is studying a proposal to suspend the duty from April to September each year for five years, with no decision yet, as Tiruppur’s knitwear hub warns of lost orders and paychecks for lakhs of mostly women workers.