Staff Reporter :
The government counts losses Tk 70 crore when the sugar mills are in operation and Tk 20 crore when the mills are closed.
Under this circumstance, the government has decided to shut down production at six of the 15 state-owned sugar mills without any pre-announcement amid the threshing season in a bid to cut its losses.
The government suspended production at Pabna Sugar Mills, Shyampur Sugar Mills, Panchagarh Sugar Mills, Setabganj Sugar Mills, Rangpur Sugar Mills and Kushtia Sugar Mills.
Workers and officials of these factories as well as farmers are panicked following the government decision but the Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) has said they will continue to get their salaries.
Assuring no one will lose job, the BSFIC Secretary Md Abdul Wahab said, “The officials and workers will continue to receive their salaries. The six mills have been shut down as the government is to count losses Tk 70 crore when these are in operation and Tk 20 crore when not in operation.”However, measures will be taken to bring the produced sugarcane to the nearby mills for the sake of farmers, he added.
Economists, however, said the government should adopt implementable plan to resolve the emerging crisis and make the factories profitable.
Prof Dr Abu Yusuf said, “The private companies are doing business smoothly, though the state-owned factories are counting losses. So, the government will have to adopt plan making the factories profitable, instead of shutting down.”
Fifteen state-owned sugar mills have been counting losses of around Tk 10 billion every year due to various reasons, including excess manpower, the deteriorating condition of machineries, shortage of raw materials, mounting interests on long-term bank loans and the suspension of production for about 10 months of the year.
For these reasons, white sugar produced in private refineries is available in the market at Tk 60 to Tk 80 per kg, whereas sugar produced at government mills is priced between Tk 190 to Tk 250 per kg. As such, the debt-ridden factories are also having difficulties settling their debts to sugarcane farmers on time.
In the last few years, the government has been able to alleviate the crises emerging in the threshing season through the subsidies provided by the ministry. But in the last fiscal year, the amount of government subsidies has also dropped.
According to BSFIC, the sugar mills racked up losses of Tk 9.7 billion in fiscal year 2019-20. The accumulated losses in the last five years stood at Tk 39.76 billion.
