Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA) today thanked the Union Textile Minister, Smriti Irani, for considering its plea to sell cotton only to the actual users.

In a communication to the Minister, SIMA chairman M. Senthilkumar hailed the Centre’s proactive decision that would bring stability in the cotton price during the off season.

“The decision of selling balance quantity of cotton available with Cotton Corporation of India only to the MSME category spinning mills will bring some stability in prices and also meet the raw material requirement of smaller mills,” he said.

“The spot price of benchmark cotton variety Sankar-6 has increased over 45 per cent from Rs. 33,000 per candy in April to Rs. 48,000 now,” he added.

In view of the textile industry’s plea, the Minister today directed the CCI to sell the entire balance cotton available with it only to the MSME category spinning mills registered with the office of the Textile Commissioner.

It appears that the ministry might also direct CCI to sell its cotton only to the spinning mills in the future, Senthilkumar said.