LAHORE - If smooth water supply is continued, the country will produce over 11.5 million cotton bales both from Sindh and Punjab, missing the target of 14 million bales. But escalating international prices of cotton will compensate the flood-hit growers, as the commodity rates have jumped to Rs7,000 per mound from Rs4,000 of last year. The cotton growers lost around 2 million bales, translating into a loss of Rs60 billion, but they will earn Rs400 billion due to cotton price escalation on international level, said Pakistan Cotton Forum Chairman Seth M Akbar. He demanded the government to continue smooth water supply in winter so that cotton crop could not be affected due to less water supply, as a large portion of the crop has already been damaged due to floods. He rejected the reformed GST on cotton bales on the plea that this commodity is also a part of textile industry. Hence the RGST imposed on cotton will have to be refunded at the end but in this way billions of rupees will be stuck up, he added. He welcomed the proposal of government to impose Reformed GST but suggested that it should be levied on the finished products like readymade garments and end-goods instead of any product which is in process. All Pakistan Textile Mills Association Chairman appreciated the govt for imposing the RGST, saying the government plan of widening tax net is the need of the our and APTMA fully support it. He made it clear that the tax should be imposed on finished goods so that refund issue could not become hurdle for the exporters.1 He said that the whole textile industry including ginning, spinning, weaving and processing should be exempted from the proposed RGST. However there is no problem if tax is imposed on readymade garments, as it would not hamper the countrys export. He supported the idea of imposing one-time flood tax to generate revenue. Commenting on the EUs second proposal to allow greater access to Pakistani exports to the EU, he said that if this access did not include the finished goods, there would be no benefit for Pakistan. He said that it is an effort to help Pakistan recover from the devastating floods and maintain political stability. He stated that the proposal is likely to boost Pakistani exports by 100 million euros. It is pertinent to mention here that the textile sector stands as the main beneficiary from this unilateral tariff waiver, as 27 per cent of the countrys textile exports go to the EU. Experts said that bed and household linen products, which form a major part of these exports to EU have been excluded from the list. Other experts are of the view that NML and NCL, being prominent export houses in the country, stand to gain from this unilateral trade agreement between Pakistan and the EU, as the companies export 35 per cent and 20 per cent respectively of their total export sales to EU. Salman Abduhoo