RAHIM YAR KHAN, Nov 24: The payment against per maund premium to farmers for producing contamination-free cotton will soon be started. This was stated by Federal Textile Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema while inaugurating a latest cotton ginning plant in a factory here on Thursday.

The minister said that funds would soon be released in this regard. He said the project, delayed due to local elections and earthquake, would be restarted within the next few days.

He said Pakistan was the fourth largest cotton producing country, but our cotton products drew low prices in the international market due to the contamination of cotton.

Our cotton export, he said, would touch a 5 billion dollars mark yearly if we produced contamination-free cotton and this would greatly help in strengthening the country’s economy.

Mr Cheema assured the cotton ginners that an easy procedure would be adopted to import upgraded machinery. He urged all textile groups to purchase cotton free from contamination from ginning factories on premium so that its production could be increased.

Cotton ginners, he said, could install the latest machinery in their factories and, for this purpose, an interest-free loan of Rs5 million to each factory owner would be provided.

The federal minister said that Rs28 million funds would soon be released for a ginning institute at Multan. He said that latest HVI fibre testing laboratories were being imported and one of them should be set up at Rahim Yar Khan.

He also assured the cotton ginners that all the problems related to the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) would be resolved.