State jute mills run out of steam

The survival of Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation, which operates 26 mills and employs more than 60,000, is at stake as the mills are running at half of their capacity due to non-availability of raw jute and funds.

The biggest problem the state-owned company has been facing for years is that it cannot buy raw jute in time. When the government disburses funds, the market price of jute increases 40-50 percent from the peak season of July-August.

The jute-harvesting season has already started, but Humayun Khaled, chairman of the BJMC, said the company would not be able to buy any of it now, whereas the private mills would be piling it on.

“If I had the money in my hand, I would have bought as much jute as I can,” he said.

What costs Tk 500 crore now would cost at least Tk 700 crore in October-November.

“We are running our mills at half of their 700 tonnes-a-day capacity for want of raw jute.

We are also missing out export opportunities in the Chinese market.”

This begs the question why the BJMC is unable to buy jute with its own funds, instead of relying on handouts from the government.

Data shows the state-owned company has earned more than Tk 1,016 crore in the first 11 months of fiscal 2014-15.

As per BJMC's data, it has to spend Tk 14 crore per week as wages for workers, meaning the corporation has to spend Tk 728 crore a year or nearly 72 percent of its total earnings as wages. Now with the government's new pay commission, the wage bill would only expand further.

A worker in one of the BJMC's 26 mills gets Tk 430 a day as wage, which is more than double the amount in private mills.

Another chronic problem the corporation faces is that it is hugely over-staffed. The private mills are run on a “no work, no pay” basis, but the BJMC has to pay its workers weekly, regardless of whether there is any work or not.

Another Tk 80 crore is spent annually for interest payments against bank loans, said the BJMC chairman, adding that if the other expenses are added, the BJMC is left with hardly any funds.

Amid this situation, the BJMC has called upon the government to provide funds immediately to avert workers' agitation for payments before Eid. Several letters have been written to the relevant ministry in this regard.

Politically intervened expenses drain out the corporation's funds further.

Moreover, this financially ailing public organisation spends around Tk 10 crore a year to support sports activities; the BJMC has teams for football, cycling, judo, athletics and so on.

But Khaled does not agree that the money being spent on sports is going to waste. The BJMC is contributing hugely to different national teams, which he said is a matter of pride for the entire corporation.