BJMC seeks Tk 5.0b for purchase to feed mills

Rezaul Karim | Published: August 09, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has sought Tk 5.0 billion in financial assistance from the government to help it procure raw jute urgently, officials have said, as the prime time of the cash crop has now set in.
The state corporation requires the funds as it is facing an acute financial problem mainly because of a fall in export of jute goods, according to the sources.
Major-General Humayun Khaled, Chairman of the BJMC, sent Monday a letter to Mahbub Ahmed, senior secretary of the ministry of finance (MoF), seeking the fund support.
The mills under the BJMC manufacture different types of packaging fabrics, hessian, sacking, carpet backing, mats and bags which are exported to different countries across the globe.
But the export of such items took a downturn, a BJMC official told the FE.
The main reason being cited is a significant fall in the use of jute goods across the world due to substitutes available nowadays.
"Products worth Tk 7.50 billion are stored in different jute mills across the country. The jute items have long remained stockpiled due to the fall in export," the letter reads.
Besides, millers are passing hard times due to the fund constraint. So, jute- procurement activities of the mills have got deadlocked, sources have said.
The jute-procurement season is underway. It is profitable if the BJMC procures jute at this time, sources concerned have said. Â
During the jute-procurement season, both state-owned and private mills usually face financial constraints. Then the government offers financial assistance to the BJMC to help them out every year.
On the other hand, the jute mills were incurring heavy losses. The mills' performance was not satisfactory, a high official of the MoF said.
The corporation has set a target to procure 2.26 million bales (26.14 lakh quintals) of raw jute for the fiscal year (FY) 2014-15. The state entity has to procure jute worth Tk 10.0 billion all the year round at market prices, 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.
Its 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.