India Resumes Cotton Export .

Bangladesh has started importing Indian cotton after a six-month embargo.

Customs officials said 144 trucks with 8,253 bales of cotton entered Bangladesh on Monday.

An Indian cotton exporter and manager of L G W Limited, 'Dipak', told reporters that an Indian central finance ministry circular on Apr 9 imposed a VAT of Rs 2,500 per tonne of cotton export. It also ordered that the permission letter for cotton export had to be brought from Delhi instead of Kolkata.

Later on Apr 19, the Indian government imposed a direct ban on exporting cotton to Bangladesh, Dipak added.

The Indian Cotton Exporters' Association went to the High Court challenging legality of the embargo. Cotton exports resumed on Monday as a recent court verdict went in favour of the exporters, the Indian businessman said.

Bangladesh imports about 5.5 million bales of cotton every year for yarn production. Of that, four million bales are imported from Uzbekistan and another one million form India.

Although cotton imports remained suspended at Benapole border, a very small number of businessmen kept up imports with the required VAT.

Benapole customs cargo officer Fazlur Rahman told bdnews24.com about the 144 trucks entering Bangladesh till Monday evening.

Narayanganj's Jony Yarn imported 2,378 bales, Dhaka's P N Enterprise 3,384 bales, Israk Spinning Mills 630 bales and Ilhan Textile imported 1,861 bales.

Source : bdnews24.com