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Hide procurement still possible if loans provided: BTA

By Govind? Shil
The hides and skins which could not be procured by tanneries after Eid ul Azha this year due to lack of funding can still be salvaged if loans are provided within the week, according to Secretary-General of Bangladesh Tanners Association (BTA), Abdul Hye.
There is still time to procure the hides and skins from across the country," he said. We can check the disaster if we are given loans within seven days: the hide will be rotten soon if it. is not collected."
Leather manufacturers and exporters said the government should address the problem immediately to revive the fn-dustiy and strengthen the national economy.
The leather export industry is the fourth largest earner of foreign exenange in Bangladesh, fetching Taka 1,100 crore annually.
It was estimated that the industry would earn Taka 768 crore during the July-February period of the current fiscal year, but only Taka 491 crore of this amount was actually realised.
The manufacturers and exporters also said prices of hides and skins in India were much below those in Bangladesh, so its smuggling was not financially viable.
The skin of a particular goat, the "Black Bengal", is in great demand on the Indian market and large quantities of it are being smuggled across the border each year.
But Hye said he doubted that smuggling of goat skins from £ eater North Bengal to India id already occurred.
The BTA has demanded that the 69 struggling tanneries, as identified by the government, be given financial support and that banks reschedule their overdue Ioans.
We are ready for loan rescheduled and advancement of our manufacturing units." Hye said, adding that BMRE was the only way for the industry to become internationally competitive.
The BTA denied the Bangladesh Bank's claim that
out of the Taka 1.200 crore it had given to tanneries. Taka 553 crore remained 6utstandmg and it also said the 69 "sick" tanneries were not the defaulters.
The association reacted to the Finance Ministry's claims that manufacturers had been given Taka 219 crore as loans to procure hides and skins after
"As far as we know, banks have not allocated more than Taka 100 crore this season." Hye said.
He has demanded a fist of names of those granted loans.
President of the Bangladesh Finished Leather Goods Exporters Association. AHM Rahmat Ullah said : The sector cannot be revived until the authorities give their full attention to the issue.
Rahmat. a leading exporter himself, said the problems of the leather industiy had long been neglected.
According to BTA, export earnings from the sector began to fall after 1990, when the government banned the export of seml-processed wet blue leather and restricted bank loans for Balancing. Modernisation, Rehabilitation and Expansion (BMRE) programmes, to most of the 250 tanneries then in operation.
Hye said: "The political turmoils of the past two years drive our potential buyers away."
Export Promotion Bureau sources said quality leather was in high demand on the international market causing prices to rise by six per cent in recent years.
A senior EPB official said : We could not provide sufficient well processed leather as only a few manufacturers adopted advanced technology which Involves huge amounts of money."
BTA has demanded that the "Common Finishing Facility Centre", which has long been inoperatlonal, be used again. • BTA sources said the Centre could be used to produce high-, -quality leather if ib, were reopened.