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Download PDF The government has decided to shut down four state-owned jute mills and retrench 14,000 workers from 22 mills including these four as part of its three-year reform programme to revive the country’s jute sector.
Under this programme Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) will resume operation at its 18 mills from this month, said Geeteara Safiya Choudhury, adviser to the jute and textiles ministry.
The ministry has sought Tk 200 crore from the finance ministry for these mills to procure jute from this month, Geeteara said at a press briefing at her jute ministry conference room yesterday.
She said the ministry has also sought Tk 138 crore to get cash credit from different commercial banks through issuing government bond and guarantee.
The ministry found People Jute Mills in Khulna, Karnaphuli Jute Mills and Forat-Karnaphuli Carpet Factory in Chittagong, and Kaomi Jute Mills in Sirajganj non-viable to run and they will be closed permanently to sell out them to private entrepreneurs.
The adviser said a total of 6,000 workers of these four mills will be retrenched. Another 8,000 workers will be retrenched from the rest 18 mills to bring down the work force of the mills by 50 percent. Then the necessary workers will be recruited on a daily basis to save a huge amount of money as labour cost.
Geeteara said a total of Tk 1,367 crore will be given to the workers as golden handshake benefit, gratuity, provident fund, lay off benefit, notice pay, overtime and pending wages. She hoped that the money would be available from the government’s privatisation and special funds.
Under its reform programme the jute ministry has formed a high-powered taskforce comprising representatives from the jute and finance ministries and BJMC to oversee the jute procurement activities.
The adviser informed that an investigation revealed gross misconduct in procuring jute for the state-owned jute industries.
The ministry has a target to procure 55 lakh tonne raw jute from 58 procurement centres across the country for the 18 mills.
The ministry has initiated steps to sell 120 acres of BJMC’s 1,200 acres of land to generate funds for the industries.
Geeteara said steps have been taken to realise actual prices of the land of Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj and City Centre at Motijheel in the capital which were given to Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority and Dhaka City Corporation at token prices.
She said many countries have expressed interest in procuring jute goods from Bangladesh.
“We think when a market is growing and infrastructure is available, why not the government utilise the opportunity to generate employment and makeup losses,” she said.
The jute ministry earlier identified some major reasons of the state-owned jute mills for their losses. The reasons include late financing to procure jute, power crisis, pay commission implementation, labour unrest and ghost labour.
The accumulated losses of the BJMC mills stood Tk 4,770 crore in 2006.
Jute Secretary Abdur Rashid Sarker and BJMC Chairman Ataharul Islam were present at the press conference.
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