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BJMC gets TklOOcr to pay jute mill salaries

Rejaul Karim Byron
The finance ministry has provided aTk 100 crore loan under some conditions to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) to help the state agency pay salaries and wages of the staff of its 25 loss-making jute mills.
A finance ministry official said the loan was provided upon a request of the textiles and jute ministry to pay the salaries and allowances before Eid-ul-Azha.
The amount was provided in the first week of the current month.
One precondition is that the loan has to be repaid in instalments within 20 years at 5 percent interest. It includes a grace period of five years. Another is that the money cannot be used for any other purpose.
The textiles and jute ministry sought Tk 1,000 crore from the finance ministry for the BJMC for paying salaries and allowances and making the 25 jute mills profitable.
Last fiscal year the BJMC was given Tk 200 crore in two phases against the textiles and jute ministry's proposal for Tk 1,800 crore as a revolving fund.
The finance ministry official said since 2016, the jute ministry has been pushing the finance ministry for about Tk 1,800 crore to pay staff salaries and various dues and to purchase jute.
Besides, about 5,500 employees retired in the last few years and the BJMC is unable to provide their dues.
Both ministries held several meetings in 2016 in this regard. After that a piece of land of the BJMC in the capital's Gulshan was sold to the youth and sports ministry andTk 1,080 crore was given to the BJMC.
Even then the problem could not be solved and the BJMC had to be provided an amount every year.
Since 2009, the BJMC has been given around Tk 7,000 crore for buying jute and paying dues and staff salaries, said the finance ministry official.
The funds were given under various conditions, such as turning the jute mills into holding companies.
Of the 25 jute mills under the BJMC, at least five would have to be turned into holding companies. The BJMC will hold the majority of the shares while the rest will be offloaded into the stockmarket.
The BJMC has been provided with the fund at various times but it did not fulfil
any of the conditions.
In the last 11 years, the mills suffered losses every year, save for one, in fiscal 2010-11, when a slight profit of Tk 14.59 crore was made. From fiscal 2006-07 onwards, they made losses ofTk 66 crore to Tk 726 crore each year. Last fiscal year, the BJMC suffered a loss ofTk 489 crore, according to provisional estimates.
Officials of the ministries of finance and jute said there were various problems in the running of the jute mills. For instance, the mills are said to be overstaffed: about 60,000 work in them. And the salaries paid to them are much higher than those in the private sector. The jute mills cannot utilise even half of their capacities but they still have to pay salaries to their employees.
In 2011, the government reopened five mills that were shuttered due to loss-making and freshly recruited workers for them. When the jute procurement season starts, the mills fail to make purchases due to a lack of funds. They end up paying a higher price to make purchases when the season is over.