SANGHAR, Aug 19: Cotton growers and ginners are at loggerheads over the deduction by ginners of 1kg per 40kg of phutti, levy of Rs6 per 40kg as excise, market fees and other taxes, and also Rs400 as ginning charges for every three maunds.

A meeting of ginners and farmers was held at the DCO office on Tuesday to resolve the problem.

The ginners said that they deducted some amount for moisture, cotton leaves and other impurities in the phutti.

However, the farmers said that the ginning charges were extremely high, Rs6 per 40kg or so were to be paid by the ginners and not by the growers, while the ginners paid for 40kg but got 41kg instead even if the growers supplied contamination-free and moisture-free phutti.

They said previously the growers supplied cotton in jute and polypropylene bags for which the ginners deducted 3kg for each 120kg of phutti, and added that, however, ever since the government had banned jute bags, the growers had started supplying it in open trucks and trolleys but even then they were deducting money which was absolutely unfair.

Faisal Wassan, Yar Mohammad Leghari and Qasim Mahar among others represented the growers, while Rana Haji Sattar, president of the Ginners Association, Ali Mohammad Yousfani, Seth Meeoro Mal, Haji Sarwar, Seth Asandas and many others were from the ginners’ side.

The DCO, A. Dino Shar, said that the Cotton Act would be implemented strictly.

The EDO, Agriculture, Mr Chishti, who was also present in the meeting, said that the Cotton Act had been amended to produce contamination-free cotton in the country, which was why jute bags had been banned.

However, the dispute could not be resolved and a meeting of growers and ginners will be held next Tuesday.