MULTAN: Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) warned on Wednesday that tax-free import of cotton from India through the Wagah border would destabilise Pakistan’s economy and would have serious repercussions on next year’s crop.

Addressing a press conference, PCGA Chairman  Haji Muhammad Akram along with other officials said that 1.623 million bales of cotton are lying at ginneries as unsold stock and textile millers are reluctant to purchase it.

They said that there was no justification for lifting an ‘undeclared’ ban on imports of ginned cotton from India or any other country at the cost of local growers.

He said that the ginneries had sufficient stock of cotton lint available so there was no justification to import the commodity from India, while deploring that the government did not fix the support price for cotton, leaving growers at the mercy of textile millers.