Leaders of Bangladesh Jute Traders Association (BJTA) on Sunday demanded intervention of Prime Minister to recover the amount of Tk 265 crore outstanding with the state run corporation, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC).
The demand was raised at a press conference, organised by BJTA at the Zahur Hossain Chowdhury Auditorium of Jatiyo Press Club.
The recently closed state-owned jute mills owe about Tk 265 crore to the country's marginal farmers and jute traders against their supply of jute to those mills from fiscal year 2016-17 to 2019-20, said BJTA leaders while addressing the press conference.
“Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) is still quite unresponsive about the payment. Consequently, the traders who had earlier lost their business are also losing their capital now and are surviving on the verge of extinction”, they said.
In a desperate move, leaders of the trade body, on 20 July, submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister urging for her immediate mediation in recovering the money BJMC owes them. Convenor of the association Shamim Ahmed Morol and its Executive Member Md. Siam Hossain spoke at the conference among others that include Md. Tipu Sultan, Abdul Hai, Alhaj Nazrul Islam, Alhaj Mostaq Bhuiyan, Alhaj Ehtesam Khan, Hasan Ali, Mujib Hossain Chowdhury Turan, Nadem Dutt, Madhusudan Dey, Md. Sohail Mia and Shaminul Islam Shaon.
The leaders mention, the government had recently closed down 25 state-owned jute mills. Prior to the decision, meetings were held with various stakeholders, including labor leaders at the ministerial level of the government, but no consultations were held with the jute traders. Although, in the good times and bad times of the country, it was actually they who had supplied raw jute to the jute mills of BJMC and kept the wheel of the mills in motion.
Today, most of these marginal farmers and jute traders are indebted to various banks. They are undergoing an immense strain due to the sudden shutdown of their business. On top of it, they are also facing incessant pressure from the banks as well as the small jute traders.
The irony here is, even though the grants for the workers and the salaries of the BJMC officers and employees are being made by selling the jute products produced from the very jute that was supplied by these traders, BJMC seems surprisingly reluctant about the making the payment they should have made much earlier to the jute traders.
They mentioned that just a few days back, BJMC sold out these jute products for Taka 332 crore, which is more than sufficient for paying off the traders. Nonetheless, no assurance has been yet been made by the BJMC regarding the ancipitated payment till date.
The leaders lamented, although they had always been the main fuel needed for running these mills, no specific directives regarding the debt to the traders is mentioned in its policy guideline.
Today, when the government is offering incentives to the traders of different sectors in order to sustain the economy of the country which is badly affected by the global pandemic Covid-19, we, the jute traders are barely trying to survive and all we ask for is the recovery of the money BJMC owes us.
In line with these moves, the jute traders will go for a sit-in program in front of the BJMC Head Office in Motijheel on 18 August, Tuesday, at 10:00 am in the morning, and, will announce even tougher program, if necessary.
Besides seeking an active mediation and immediate directives from the Prime Minister to save the country's marginal jute farmers and traders by helping them recover their money from BJMC, the business leaders also reminded all that, there is no alternative to safeguarding jute, the golden fibre of Bangladesh, if we are truly want to materialise the dream of Bangabandhu for building a rich and prosperous Bangladesh.
