The suggestions received from the industry would be deliberated upon, in ameeting of these associations with the textile commissioner, scheduled forFebruary 7, 2000 in Mumbai. The final views emerging out of the meeting willbe then sent to the ministry of textiles.

The textile commissioner has sought the view of the industry on a host ofissues, including elimination of misuse of the exemption of hosiery yarnpacking from hank yarn obligation without harming the cause of bulk of themills which diligently comply with the scheme.

It is felt that since there has never been any crisis or short supply of 40spindles (40s) counts of cotton hank yarn or the viscose hank yarn, theremay be need to monitor the hank yarn packing obligation scheme only inrespect of yarn of counts of 40s and below.

It is to be debated in the meeting whether the obligation can be done awaywith respect to yarn counts above 40s.

Meanwhile, the industry has been asked by the office of the textilescommissioner to give its views on restricting the hank yarn obligationscheme only to counts of 40s and below. Amidst various other organisations,the South India Mills' Association (SIMA) has suggested restricting of thescheme to counts of 30s and below.

In addition, the industry has also been asked to give its views on whetherit is useful for all producers of spun yarn to furnish the details of yarnpacking/production in the quarterly return, irrespective of whether theypack obligatory and/or non-obligatory variety of yarn, which may help toeducate the handloom weavers towards the possible diversification/shiftingto alternative yarns at the time of scarce supply/availability of aparticular type of yarn.

This may facilitate gradual shifting of handloom weavers from their almostexclusive dependence on cotton hank yarn.

Considering the continued availability of hank yarn over the last few years,the industry has also been asked whether or not it will be reasonable toreduce the present level of 50 per cent overall hank yarn packing obligationto 40 per cent or any other level considered safe and adequate from thehandloom sectors point of view, commencing from the quarter April/June2000.

Moreover, it will also be discussed in the meeting that whether any mill orclass of mills should be exempted from the obligation and if so, thecontours and categories of such exemptions.

It may be mentioned here that the Hank Yarn Obligation Scheme is in voguesince 1974 through the issuance of hank yarn packing notification issuedfrom time- to- time, for different periods by the textile commissioner.This scheme was introduced to meet the then reported scarce supply of cottonhank yarn to the handloom industry, which had adversely affected the pricesof cotton hank yarn.

The handloom industry was then consuming by and large the cotton hank yarnand silk yarn generally packed in hank form.

The current hank yarn packing notification valid till March 31, prescribesthat, every producer of yarn who packs yarn for civil consumption shall packyarn in hank form in each quarterly period commencing from April-June 1995and every subsequent quarterly period in proportion of not less than 50 percent of total yarn packed by him during each quarterly period for civilconsumption.