New Delhi [India], September 3 (ANI): Union Minister for Textiles Giriraj Singh has assured that all cotton arriving in the market that falls under MSP guidelines will be procured without disruption this season, as he reiterated the government's commitment to the welfare of cotton farmers.

He reaffirmed the government's vision to protect the interests of cotton farmers by ensuring a remunerative price for their produce.

The Union Minister chaired a high-level review meeting on Tuesday in New Delhi in the presence of top officials from the ministry, Lalit Kumar Gupta, CMD, Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), to assess the preparedness for Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations for cotton during the upcoming Kharif Marketing Season 2025-26.

Cotton procurement will commence on October 1, 2025.

In line with the government's Digital India vision, all processes--right from procurement of cotton by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) under MSP operations to sale of stocks--are now completely faceless and paperless, strengthening farmers' and other stakeholders' confidence and trust in MSP operations, said the Union Minister.

For the first time, uniform norms have been laid down for the establishment of procurement centres, factoring in key parameters such as cotton cultivation area, availability of functional APMC yards and at least the availability of one stock processing factory at the cotton procurement centre.

As a result, a record 550 procurement centres have been set up across major cotton-producing states.

Procurement of cotton under MSP will commence from October 1 in the North States, October 15 in the Central States and from October 21, 2025, in the South States.

Starting this season, nationwide Aadhaar-based self-registration of cotton farmers and 7-day rolling slot booking will be facilitated via the newly launched 'Kapas-Kisaan' mobile app. This digital platform aims to streamline procurement operations, ensure transparency and enable direct Aadhaar-linked payments to farmers' bank accounts through the National Automated Clearing House (NACH). The SMS-based payment intimation service introduced last year will also continue.

To enhance on-ground support, Local Monitoring Committees (LMC) will be constituted at each APMC mandi for immediate grievance redressal by the States. Additionally, dedicated state-level helplines and a Central CCI helpline will remain active throughout the procurement period. Adequate manpower deployment, logistics support and other infrastructural arrangements would be in place before the commencement of the cotton season.

Separately, to give relief to the textile sector from the US tariffs, the central government recently extended the exemption of import duty on cotton till December 31, 2025. The move is aimed at ensuring adequate availability of cotton for the domestic textile industry.

The central Government had initially exempted the import duty on cotton from August 19, 2025, till September 30, 2025 (ANI)