Govt to take necessary steps to ensure quality of KPM product
Thursday, 18 March 2010
FE Report
The government will make the state-owned mills profitable ensuring its quality through a strong managerial efficiency.
"The government is committed to make the entities strong and also wants to re-start the closed mills rather to close them," Industries Minister Dilip Barua said Tuesday.
The Karnaphuli Paper Mill (KPM) management should change their mindset and in this regard the government has appointed a new managing director to run the mill properly, he added.
He was speaking in a meeting with the leaders of local paper producers at his secretariat office.
He said the government will take the necessary steps to ensure the quality of paper produced by KPM and reduce of selling price as the leaders claimed that the KPM paper quality is below the standard and KPM price is higher than the private manufacturers.
"The government should reduce the KPM paper selling price to 20 per cent as it fails to compete with the private producers," ATM Jahangir Dulal, president of Bangladesh Paper Merchants Association (BPMA) said.
Private mills reduced paper price in spite of increasing quality a year ago due to economic downturn. Currently they are selling paper at Tk 60,000- Tk 65,000 per metric tonne.
But KPM fixed the price at Tk 79,000 per tonne which is Tk 15,000- Tk 20,000 higher than private mills. As a result about 2500 metric tonne paper remained unsold in the store, he added.
The paper manufacturers also demanded the regular paper supply with monthly allocation claiming the monthly paper allocation had been stopped from August 2007.
KH Masud Siddique, chairman of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), Mir Khurshid Anwar, joint secretary of BCIC, Dewan Zakir Hossain, secretary of Ministry of Industries and Fazlur Rahman, general secretary of BPMA, among other leaders of the association, were present in the meeting.
The government will make the state-owned mills profitable ensuring its quality through a strong managerial efficiency.
"The government is committed to make the entities strong and also wants to re-start the closed mills rather to close them," Industries Minister Dilip Barua said Tuesday.
The Karnaphuli Paper Mill (KPM) management should change their mindset and in this regard the government has appointed a new managing director to run the mill properly, he added.
He was speaking in a meeting with the leaders of local paper producers at his secretariat office.
He said the government will take the necessary steps to ensure the quality of paper produced by KPM and reduce of selling price as the leaders claimed that the KPM paper quality is below the standard and KPM price is higher than the private manufacturers.
"The government should reduce the KPM paper selling price to 20 per cent as it fails to compete with the private producers," ATM Jahangir Dulal, president of Bangladesh Paper Merchants Association (BPMA) said.
Private mills reduced paper price in spite of increasing quality a year ago due to economic downturn. Currently they are selling paper at Tk 60,000- Tk 65,000 per metric tonne.
But KPM fixed the price at Tk 79,000 per tonne which is Tk 15,000- Tk 20,000 higher than private mills. As a result about 2500 metric tonne paper remained unsold in the store, he added.
The paper manufacturers also demanded the regular paper supply with monthly allocation claiming the monthly paper allocation had been stopped from August 2007.
KH Masud Siddique, chairman of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC), Mir Khurshid Anwar, joint secretary of BCIC, Dewan Zakir Hossain, secretary of Ministry of Industries and Fazlur Rahman, general secretary of BPMA, among other leaders of the association, were present in the meeting.