India’s textile sector is lobbying New Delhi to keep the duty-free import channel for raw cotton open for a further six months once the present concession lapses on October 31, pointing to escalating yarn quotations and a tightening fibre supply.
The 11% levy on imported raw cotton was set aside between June and the end of October in an effort to widen supply and cool the domestic market.
Even so, raw cotton values have climbed roughly 24% over the past half-year, while cotton yarn has appreciated by close to 60% during 2026.
KM Subramanian, who heads the Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA), confirmed that a formal submission has gone to the Centre seeking the additional six months, noting that the scale of the yarn escalation this year has compounded the difficulties already confronting garment exporters.
Domestic cotton supply offers little comfort. Output in 2025-26 slipped 2.35% to 290 lakh bales of 170 kg per bale, a sixth successive annual decline that leaves the crop more than 17% below its 2021-22 level.
“Subramanian pointed out that yarn typically represents around 60% of a garment’s raw material bill, and that mills are contending not merely with dearer fibre but with patchy availability,” The Economic Times reported.
Attention is now turning to the incoming crop, which is harvested from October. Pradip Jain, president of the Khandesh Ginning and Pressing Association, described the monsoon performance across the principal growing belts — Vidarbha, Marathwada, Telangana and swathes of Gujarat — as unsatisfactory.
Growers, for their part, are uneasy. Permitting untaxed shipments to land during the harvest window could, they argue, weigh on realisations at precisely the wrong moment, with fertiliser and seed bills already running higher than in previous seasons.
Jain took a more sanguine view of that risk. Overseas quotations are currently such that imported lint is unlikely to undercut the domestic article by any meaningful margin, he said, adding that prices at home should hold around the present Rs 9,000 a quintal while the arrangement eases the supply squeeze facing spinners.
Image courtesy: Business Recorder
