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A coterie is allegedly active to thwart any bid to solve the problems of the de-nationalised jute mills so that the private sector jute industry does not thrive and the public sector mills can enjoy a free-run despite incurring regular losses.
The coterie is also ignoring various decisions taken previously by the government to solve the overall problems of the jute industry in the country.
The allegations were made by Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) Chairman Mirza Ali Behrouze Ispahani while addressing the 21st annual general meeting (AGM) of the association in the city recently.
Before the World Bank (WB) intervened in 1992 and undertook the JSAC programme, there was hardly any discrimination between the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) and the BJMA member mills, he added.
The WB stepped in to make the jute mills viable, but due to discrimination between BJMC and BJMA mills as well as flaws in the JSAC plan, the WB programme could not make the mills viable/profitable between July, 1992 and June, 95, he mentioned.
On the contrary, the BJMA mills incurred losses during the period. Besides, the price in export markets started to decline gradually from 1997 and by 1998 prices declined up to 30 per cent.
As a result, the working capital of mills gradually eroded and banks ultimately refused to finance further and the mills had to be shut down.
The BJMA also requested the Ministry of Finance to instruct the banks for not to amalgamate the working capital with that of the re-structured loan and to keep those separate, he said.
At the AGM, the BJMA president demanded immediate settlement of some anomalies relating to interest rate, adding that the banks were charging excessive interests, violating the government instruction in this connection.
He also urged the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to avoid discriminations during assessing income tax between BJMC and BJMA mills.
In this connection, he said that the NBR did not accept the audited balance sheets of the mills in the private sector, while it accepted the same for the jute mills in the public sector.
The BJMA president further urged the Ministry of Environment and Forest as well as other ministries concerned to withdraw the Cabinet decision relating to use of 10 per cent synthetic bags instead of jute bags while packaging fertiliser.
In this connection, he said that India made use of jute bags mandatory during packing certain items like foodgrains, sugar and fertiliser.
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