Govt introduces leasing system to give jute mills to private operators
Sunday, 13 July 2008
The caretaker government introduced leasing system to give jute mills to private operators as the last kiss of life to the moribund jute sector, once country's main foreign-exchange earner.
With this system in place the old practice of taking money from the Finance Ministry through 'begging' will decrease to some extent and the joblessness of workers would also be cut down, Jute and Textiles Adviser Anwarul Iqbal told a press conference in the city Saturday, reports UNB.
He said a unit of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) would supervise the leased-out process and there would be no confusion about the operation of the industrial units.
Already, the government has leased out four jute mills to private entrepreneurs in this context.
The jute mills are People's Jute Mills (Tk 61.30 million per year), Karnaphuli Jute Mills (Tk 31.10 million per year), RR Jute Mills (Tk 15 million per year) and FKCF Jute Mills (Tk 4.80 million annually).
Another mill, MM Jute Mills (Tk 12.60 million per year), is under such lease processing as the lessee appealed for time extension to pay the lease amount.
"The jute mills did not see the light of profit after the independence; we have decided to lease them out as the government wants to reduce the unemployment and increase productivity in the jute industry," the adviser told reporters about the newly devised jute-revival recipe.
Jute and Textiles Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar said that this system is being adopted to keep alive the jute sector.
This vital sector appears to have been brought to the brink of extinction under donor-designed structural readjustment plan, which resulted in the shutdown of a number of jute mills, including Adamjee, Asia's biggest jute mill.
The BJMC will open an office on the premises of each of the leased-out mills to monitor the mill property, the ownership of which lies with the government, he said.
As per a private lease agreement the private entrepreneurs will run the jute mills initially for a period of five years.
According to the deal, the government will get a lease fee, apart from a share of profits if the private operators can make the mills commercially viable. The operators will bear all liabilities during the lease period.
However, the government will have to shoulder the previous liabilities and loans. The lease fee will be used by the BJMC for the reimbursement of some of these liabilities.
Meanwhile, the country earned US$242.89 million from exports of jute goods during the first nine months (July-March) of the just-ended fiscal year, marking a 1.40 per cent decline over the previous year's level.
The country fetched another amount of $127.94 million from raw jute exports during the period, which is a 13.27 per cent rise over the preceding year's corresponding period's performance.
With this system in place the old practice of taking money from the Finance Ministry through 'begging' will decrease to some extent and the joblessness of workers would also be cut down, Jute and Textiles Adviser Anwarul Iqbal told a press conference in the city Saturday, reports UNB.
He said a unit of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) would supervise the leased-out process and there would be no confusion about the operation of the industrial units.
Already, the government has leased out four jute mills to private entrepreneurs in this context.
The jute mills are People's Jute Mills (Tk 61.30 million per year), Karnaphuli Jute Mills (Tk 31.10 million per year), RR Jute Mills (Tk 15 million per year) and FKCF Jute Mills (Tk 4.80 million annually).
Another mill, MM Jute Mills (Tk 12.60 million per year), is under such lease processing as the lessee appealed for time extension to pay the lease amount.
"The jute mills did not see the light of profit after the independence; we have decided to lease them out as the government wants to reduce the unemployment and increase productivity in the jute industry," the adviser told reporters about the newly devised jute-revival recipe.
Jute and Textiles Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarkar said that this system is being adopted to keep alive the jute sector.
This vital sector appears to have been brought to the brink of extinction under donor-designed structural readjustment plan, which resulted in the shutdown of a number of jute mills, including Adamjee, Asia's biggest jute mill.
The BJMC will open an office on the premises of each of the leased-out mills to monitor the mill property, the ownership of which lies with the government, he said.
As per a private lease agreement the private entrepreneurs will run the jute mills initially for a period of five years.
According to the deal, the government will get a lease fee, apart from a share of profits if the private operators can make the mills commercially viable. The operators will bear all liabilities during the lease period.
However, the government will have to shoulder the previous liabilities and loans. The lease fee will be used by the BJMC for the reimbursement of some of these liabilities.
Meanwhile, the country earned US$242.89 million from exports of jute goods during the first nine months (July-March) of the just-ended fiscal year, marking a 1.40 per cent decline over the previous year's level.
The country fetched another amount of $127.94 million from raw jute exports during the period, which is a 13.27 per cent rise over the preceding year's corresponding period's performance.