LAHORE: Punjab agriculture authorities are hopeful that taxes on local cotton will be withdrawn in the next budget to provide it a level playing field.

Punjab Agriculture Minister Syed Ashiq Kirmani told a delegation of the Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association on Wednesday that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has carried the demand of abolishing taxes on local cotton to the pre-budget meeting of all chief ministers headed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad on Wednesday.

The minister asked the ginners to be ready to start their units early this season to process the cotton sown earlier on at least one million acres in the province.

He did not agree with the proposition put forward by MPA Rana Saleem, who is also a ginner, that, like in the past, the import of cotton should be banned till local cotton is not fully sold out, Chaudhry Waheed Arshad, a spokesperson for the PCGA, told Dawn by phone.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2025