BJMC mills fail to buy raw jute for fund crisis

Rezaul Karim | Published: September 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

The raw jute procurement activities of different mills under Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) have come to a halt mainly due to shortage of necessary fund, officials have said.
The government released Tk 10 billion to the BJMC for the current fiscal year (FY) to procure raw jute in July last. But only 25 per cent of its dues have been repaid through the fund, a high official of the corporation said.
"Some Tk 1.7 billion will have to be paid to jute traders urgently for which they are pressuring us repeatedly. But there is no required cash to procure jute," he mentioned. Â
An official concerned of the state entity informed that the BJMC has sought Tk 6.50 billion from the government to help it procure raw jute and repay its dues, staff salary etc urgently.
He also said BJMC Chairman Maj Gen Humayun Khaled sent a letter to secretary of the ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) Phani Bhoushon Choudhury 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 setback mainly because of a severe cash problem, according to the sources concerned.
"Jute products are stored in different jute mills across the country. The jute items have long remained stockpiled due to the fall in export," a source concerned told the FE Wednesday.
Besides, millers are passing hard times due to the fund constraints. So, jute- procurement activities of the mills have got deadlocked, sources have said.
The jute-procurement season is going on. So, it is profitable if the BJMC procures jute now, they said. Â
During the jute-procurement season, both state-owned and private mills usually face financial constraints. And the government offers financial assistance to the BJMC to help them out every year, an official of the MoTJ said.
Meanwhile, the jute mills were incurring heavy losses. The performance of the mills was also not satisfactory, a high official of the ministry said.
The corporation has set a target to procure 2.26 million bales (2.61 million quintals) of raw jute for the FY 2014-15, according to the BJMC data.
BJMC buys raw jute for the mills through 182 purchase 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.