Badrul Ahsan:
The government is set to form a new authority to oversee the country’s textile mills, a senior Ministry official said.
To this effect, the Ministry of Textiles & Jute has in the meantime drafted a new law, ‘Textile Policy Act 2015’ making mandatory for all the textile mills to be enlisted with the authority.
All the existing textile units, according to the proposed law, will also require getting registered with the authorities for obtaining support from the government and other trade bodies, including financial institutions.
If a textile factory fails to get enlistment, it will not be allowed to work with the enlisted one under sub-contracting arrangement, the draft law said.
A factory will be enlisted with the authority only if it has safety measures and environment–friendly production in place.
“Our textile mills have been set up in an unplanned and scattered way. Now it is time to bring those under a system,” Minister of Textiles and Jute Md. Emaz Uddin Pramanik told the The New Nation Tuesday. “Our plan is to implement a unique system in the industry through the law.”
“We’ve a few mills that maintain all necessary safety measures and environmental standards in their factories. These issues have now emerged as a major setback for the country to satisfy overseas buyers,” he said.
The Minister said, he is hopeful about reaching a certain position for producing clothes without creating any environmental hazards.
An industry leader, meanwhile, has expressed his mixed reaction over enacting the law. He is doubtful about proper exercise of power given in the law.
“The state might enact a law or frame policy to monitor any sector. But our experiences over implementation of laws by the government officials are not good,” President of BTMA Tapan Chowdhury said.
“We’re not against enactment of the law, but the government should keep in mind that all the textile mills don’t have the ability to set up effluent treatment plant (ETP) and also not capable of ensuring all types of compliance issues in their factories for want of money,” he said.
“If the government makes a plan to provide necessary technical and financial support to the smaller and medium capital based factories, then we will welcome the attempt of enacting the law,” Tapan Chowdhury said.
According to the draft, if factory owners fail to enlist their factories with the sponsoring authority, then the factory owner might be awarded highest three months’ imprisonment or a penalty of Tk 100,000.
The draft also empowers the sponsoring authority to help release any capital machinery and other imported goods of the textile mills on a preferential basis.
The enlistment with the authority will require renewal in every five years on payment of certain amount of fees.
However, if every thing goes accordingly, the high official of the Ministry expressing hope said, the policy will be passed within the next three months.
