PC made redundant

The Privatisastion Commission (PC) virtually does not have any business to do following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent announcement to stall privatization of state-owned enterprises (SoEs).
The government had a decision to transfer a number of textiles and jute mills to the private sector, but the process has been halted following the PM's announcement.
Some days back, the Prime Minister announced that SoEs would no more be denationalized as many of such enterprises handed over earlier to the private operators were yet to resume operation.
According to official sources, the PC under the PM office had prepared a list of a total of 22 government-owned textile and jute mills for divestment.
On the list are Arco Industries Ltd., SAF Industries Ltd., Dhaka Leather Company Ltd., North Bengal Paper Mills Ltd., Bangladesh Can Company Ltd., Aroma Tea Ltd., Dhaka Match Factory; National Sugar Mills, Chittagong Chemical Complex, Lumber Processing Complex, Karnaphuuli Rayon & Chemical Ltd., Procurement & Sales Organization, Tiger Wear Products Ltd, Sylhet Textile Mills, Kurigram Textile Mills Ltd, Valika Woolen Mills Ltd, Rajshahi Silk Factory and Thakurgaon Silk Factory.
The official figures also show that the cumulative liabilities of these SOEs have already hit Tk 13.70 billion.
"Now the PC does not have any activity relating to transfer of government-owned sick industries to private sector following the Prime Minister's announcement," one official at the PC told the FE.
"Most of the state-owned textile and jute mills placed in the pipeline for privatisation are not in operation for want of necessary funds and infrastructures," he said
The factories don't even have gas and electricity connections.
"If the government wants to run the factories profitably, it has to refinance them," the official said.
According to the PC sources, 74 factories have so far been privatised in phases under the denationalization recipe in a reversal of the post-independence economic agenda of state acquisition of enterprises.           
The units encompass sectors like jute, textiles, steel & eng, sugar & food, power, transport, port & container handling, natural gas & oil, banking & insurance, fisheries & livestock, chemicals, telecommunications, and aviation & tourism.
Among them, 54 factories have been sold out completely to the private sector while 20 remained under partnership.
An investigation team of the PC found that more than 41 per cent of the divested units were yet to go into production after their handover to the private sector due to absence of proper management.
Managing Director of Argon Denims Anwar-ul-Alam Chowdhury Parvez mentioned liabilities and backdated machinery as main barriers to running the government-owned industries.
"Many of government-owned industries now out of production but have big liabilities," the private-sector businessman said.
Mr Parvez said the BTMC mills could grab a big portion of domestic yarn market but failed due to outmoded machinery and mismanagement. The mills are now laid out of production.
Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) president Jahangir Alamin said, "For absence of production the liability is increasing and so the PC could not sell any of the mills to any privet entrepreneur."
He said if the government wants to run the mills, it will have to go for overhauling as most of the mills don't have minimum facilities to go into production.

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