Jute industry in disarray
The initiative to bring back the golden days of the jute sector has become a burden for the government.
The management organisation of the five government jute mills, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) is in trouble after reopening the mills and appointing 35,000 permanent workers from 2011 to 2013. Now they have 22,000 extra workers, which have a spending of Tk 250 crore every year. BJMC is also facing a loss of Tk 70 to 80 crore per year for not getting the allocated money during the peak season.
The downtrend in the international market is also added to the crisis. BJMC faced a loss of Tk 450 crore in the 2014-15 fiscal, which is the highest in the previous years. In the last two years, the loss was Tk 326 crore.
BJMC has submitted a report to the textile and jute ministry and the finance ministry identifying the reasons behind the huge loss.
According to the report, BJMC asked for Tk 500 crore from the government during March-April in 2014-15 fiscal to buy jute from the market.
The government approved the money on 16 June. It will take till July to get the money disbursed. However, June-July is the peak season for buying jute. Now the jute would be bought in August-September where BJMC has to spend additional Tk 70 crore for the purpose.
In addition, salary of 4,000 officials and employees and wages of 67,000 workers of the jute mills under BJMC are still due. There is also a due of Tk 350 crore for the pension and gratuity fund of the 5,700 retired workers and employees.
Motijheel BJMC office is receiving applications on a daily basis for the dues for the treatment of wife’s cancer, daughter’s marriage and also describing the dying personal conditions of the employees. The letters also contain recommendations of ministers, parliament members and local Awami League leaders. But the BJMC officials are returning their requests showing cause of insufficient funds.
Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) executive director professor Mustafizur Rahman said, “The jute sector is the most sensitive matter for the history of Bangladesh and for the rural economy. The sector is bleeding for lack of proper planning and entrepreneurship. At the starting, only we said that it will be contrary, the way government is appointing workers at a large scale and reopening the big jute mills without any planning. And that is what has happened.”
BJMC sources said, a total of 22,520 workers have no work among the 35,000 permanent workers appointed during the present government’s tenure. Almost 90 per cent of the 67,000 workers have been made permanent. Only one-third of the production capacity or the looms of 26 jute mills is in use. Others are closed. However, Tk 250 crore is being spent on the workers each year.
On the other hand, the government gave Tk 105 crore in 2011 to bring back the golden days of the jute sector and it was spent only to start the three closed jute mills.
BJMC spent Tk 70 crore from its own fund to start the other two jute mills. All the jute mills along with those five are now in crisis for the additional workers and they are unable to sell their products.
BJMC chairman Major General (retd) Humayun Khaled told Prothom Alo that lives and livelihood of four crore people are related with the country’s jute sector. One crore jute farmers are guaranteed to sale their jute as long as the government jute mills are working. As a result, government assistance is needed to retain the jute mills.
The jute farmers and the small businessmen who are dependent on the government jute mills are suffering alike. They are not getting the price or the bills after providing jute worth Tk 100 crore to the jute mills.
BJMC in the starting of the current fiscal (2015-16) aimed to buy jute worth Tk 1,000 crore. The government however gave only Tk 100 crore just before the Eid and said it is not possible to give more. As a result, the old dues are still not cleared and this year jute has been bought in credit.
State minister for textile and jute Mirza Azam told Prothom Alo, “We have taken a 10 year action plan to make the jute sector a profitable one. We are planning to modernise the jute mills and to sell the unused lands of the jute mills to obtain some fund. There won’t be any crisis in the jute mills after these plans are implemented.”
Various government officials said the government was initiating a masterplan to revive the jute sector. But the plan did not see the light. Now the government is again saying about a 10-year action plan.