Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has sought Tk 3.92 billion from the government to help it procure raw jute at this prime time and pay staff salary urgently, officials said.
They said BJMC Chairman Major-General Humayun Khaled sent Sunday a letter to secretary of the ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) Phani Bhoushon Choudhury for providing the bailout funds.
The letter was also sent to the senior secretary of the ministry of finance (MoF) simultaneously.
An official concerned of the state corporation informed that BJMC has sought the funds from the government to facilitate it procure raw jute, meet daily expenses and weekly staff salary.
The corporation is facing setbacks mainly because of a severe cash crunch for a market slump, 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 fall in exports and sales in the fiscal year 2012-13 and 2013-14," one of the sources told the FE Tuesday.
Besides, millers are passing hard times due to the fund constraints. So, jute- procurement activities of the mills are being hampered, the sources 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 and 9 in Khulna zone. BJMC has two zonal offices for supervising and coordinating the activities of regional mills.
(jahangir_fe@yahoo.com)
