Funds crunch impedes BJMC\\\'s jute procurement drive

Rezaul Karim | Published: November 22, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The jute procurement drive of different mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) is facing a setback due to shortage of necessary funds, officials said.
They said the state entity needs Tk 4.0 billion urgently to continue the jute procurement activity. The procurement movement is at stake now due to lack of necessary funds.
The corporation has set a target to procure 2.26 million bales (2.61 million quintals) of raw jute for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15, according to the BJMC data.
The state entity may fail to fulfil the procurement target for the current fiscal year as only 15 per cent of the target has been achieved till November 20 last, a high official of the BJMC said.Â Â
The raw jute procurement activities by the BJMC have come to a halt mainly due to shortage of funds, sources said.
All farmers and traders will start selling their stored jute to store their other grains especially rice from their different warehouses. As a result, Jute procurement activities by the BJMC will be strengthened in December next, they said.
Generally, the BJMC procures jute from the markets, especially farmers, from July to June.
An official concerned of the state -owned corporation informed that "We sought Tk 3.92 billion for procurement of jute from the ministry of finance (MoF) recently.
The state entity may not achieve the procurement target in this fiscal if the government does not provide the required funds to the corporation, he said.
He also said BJMC Chairman Maj Gen Humayun Khaled sent a letter to the secretary of the ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) seeking the fund.
The letter was also sent to senior secretary of the ministry of finance (MoF) at the same time.
The corporation is facing a setback mainly because of a severe cash crunch, according to the sources concerned.
Â "Jute goods are stored in different jute mills across the country and the jute items have long remained stockpiled due to the fall in export," a deputy secretary of the commerce ministry concerned told the FE.
Besides, millers are passing hard times due to the fund constraints. So, jute procurement activities of the mills have come to a standstill, he said.
During the jute procurement season, both state-owned and other mills usually face financial constraints, an official of the MoTJ said.
Meanwhile, the jute mills under the BJMC were incurring heavy losses. The performance of the mills was also not satisfactory, a high official of the ministry said.
BJMC buys raw jute for the mills through 182 purchasing centres located in the jute-growing areas of the country, ensuring fair price to the farmers.
The state mills manufacture mainly hessian cloth, different types of hessian bags, sacking cloth, different types of sacking bags, yarn, geo-jute, blanket, jute canvas and carpet backing cloth (CBC) etc from jute, the longest natural fibre in the world.
Now the organisation is operating 26 mills (including 3 non-jute industries). There are 7 mills in Dhaka zone, 10 in Chittagong zone and 9 in Khulna zone. BJMC has two zonal offices for supervising and coordinating the activities of regional mills.
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