KARACHI, Jan 18: Quieter conditions prevailed on the cotton market on Tuesday as ginners continued to protest against the levy of 3.5 per cent withholding tax on farm commodities, including cotton.

Physical business, therefore, remained slow as ginners and spinners could not precisely decide who will pay the tax and whether or not to include it in the current selling prices, brokers said.

Some lots, however, did change hands around the previous levels as some of the spinners managed to clinch stray deals minus the proposed tax amid hopes that the protests and strikes, notably in the southern Punjab cotton belt, may force the government to withdraw it to normalize cotton trade, they said.

They said mill ready off-take remained slow for the last couple of sessions as both sellers and buyers have joined the protesters and have reportedly closed their ginning operations.

Meanwhile, reports coming in from the global markets indicate that the lint prices remained on the higher side as supplies were far below the surging demand of the world consumers.

There was, therefore, no change in the official spot rates, which were held unchanged at the overnight level of Rs9,900 per maund.

The following are some of the notable deals reported in the ready section late on Tuesday evening by the Karachi Brokers Forum to the KCA. SINDH TYPE:

400 bales, upper Sindh at Rs10,000, 300 bales, and Mirpurkhas at Rs9,700. PUNJAB VARIETY:

1,000 bales, Khanpur at Rs10,000 to 10,200, 1,000 bales, Rahimyar Khan at Rs10,000, 400 bales, each Alipur and Uch Sharif at Rs10,000, 600 bales, Rajanpur also at this rate, 200 bales, Mian Channu at Rs9,500, 400 bales, Haroonabad at Rs9,600 and 200 bales, Chichawatni at Rs9,800.