With cotton prices on the rise, the Textile Ministry has directed the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to sell cotton purchased by it. This is to keep prices of the commodity under check. In a couple of days, the CCI will start e-sale of cotton stock with it to micro, small and medium-scale (MSMS) textile mills directly at minimum support price, it is understood. This year, the CCI purchased 8.4 lakh bales of cotton at minimum support price this year. Out of this, it has supplied nearly two lakh bales to the National Textile Corporation (NTC) and state co-operative mills. It had also sold about 1.5 lakh bales a month over the last four months through e-auction.

Now the 27,000 bales that the CCI has with it will be sold to small and medium-scale mills. The sales will be executed through e-auction and only small and medium-scale mills will be able to bid for the stocks. This will benefit the small and medium-scale mills. The main reason for the spiraling prices was CCI selling cotton to multinational companies and large buyers. In fact, the CCI should sell cotton at just minimum support price and the cost incurred for storing the cotton till now should be passed on to the domestic textile mills so that prices come down.