MULTAN, Oct 10: Former National Assembly speaker Syed Fakhar Imam has said the Trading Corporation of Pakistan has failed to help ensure cotton growers the officially announced minimum price of phutti (seed cotton).

Criticizing the corporation in a statement issued here on Sunday, he said either the TCP authorities lived in a fool's paradise or they were in the market just for an eyewash because the procurement target of mere 100,000 bales of cotton could not challenge the buyers' monopoly of the influential textile lobby.

He regretted that the prices of phutti had been crashed to Rs800 per 40kg despite the much touted TCP intervention to at least ensure the official procurement price of Rs925 per 40kg.

"It seems that the millers are on the course to exact revenge against growers' gains of last year when they fetched the international parity price for their produce," he added.

Mr Imam said the TCP was reportedly procuring lint cotton from the ginners at a price calculated on the officially fixed price for phutti, but they (ginners) were denying its benefit to trickle down to the growers.

"Ginners are simply earning at least Rs100 extra on buying of a heap of 40kg phutti through the disparity between the TCP price and the price they are offering to growers," he claimed.

He said at the prevailing international prices the rate of phutti should not be less than Rs1,000 per 40kg in the country, but ironically the growers were being paid a price at least Rs200 less than the international rate.

He said due to protracted dry weather the picking in the cotton fields this year had started earlier compared to the previous year's and consequently the phutti arrival figures at the ginneries across the country had misled the cotton pundits to start forecasting a bumper crop this year.

He said the crop was definitely better this year compared to last year when pests had played havoc with them at the time of boll formation on the cotton plant, but it was not as good as to start expecting something record breaking.

It may be added here that in 1991-92, the country had picked the all time high cotton production of 12.8m bales. Mr Imam said there was not any new cotton variety in the post-CLCV (cotton leaf curl virus) era that had kindled hopes of a high per-acre yield and its subsequent impact on the overall production.

He urged the government to immediately enhance the procurement target of the TCP, besides raising the number of corporation centres so that the prices could be rationalized.