Special Correspondent :
The of textiles and jute has sought Tk 1,000 as revolving fund from the Finance Ministry for the cash strapped Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC).
The funds were sought in an urgent basis for procurement of raw jute in the current season by BJMC and clear last year’s arrear payment.
The Jute Ministry took the initiative writing a letter to the Finance Ministry on October 11.
BJMC has an arrear of Tk 495.05 crore as on September 30 this year on account of purchase of raw jute.
“BJMC is unable to procure raw jute in this pick jute season owing to such huge arrears (fiscal year 2016-17 and 2017-18). If the fund is not released against the Corporation immediately, the production in the state-owned jute mills can be stopped due to shortage of raw jute,” read the letter.
State-owned jute mills have 94441 quintal of raw jute in their godowns with average production coverage of only 15 days, according to BJMC.
Last fiscal year, the BJMC was given Tk 200 crore in two phases against the Textiles and Jute Ministry’s proposal for Tk 1,800 crore as a revolving fund.
“Raw jute stock at most of the state-owned jute mills came down to zero level resulting in drastic fall in their production,” a BJMC official told The New Nation on Wednesday.
In the last fiscal, the average daily production by the BJMC’s jute mills stood at 471.24 metric ton, but in September this year it come down to almost half or 247.72 metric ton due to inadequate supply of raw jute.
The daily production target for each of the jute mill has been set at 623.22 metric ton. “In this context, a full-fledged procurement programme should be taken immediately to ensure adequate supply of raw jute to the mills. Otherwise, it could lead to halt their production,” said the BJMC official.
He also said that BJMC has to pay workers’ wages no matter its mills ran short with the capacity as a result of shortage of raw jute.
“This would put additional burden to the Corporation which remained under financial crisis due to the continuous loss by the state-owned jute mills,” he added.
Since 2009, the BJMC has been given around Tk 7,000 crore for buying raw jute and paying dues and staff salaries of the 25 jute mills under the BJMC.
These mills have been incurring huge losses over the years causing drainage to the national exchequer.
