Factory slashes price to pay off salaries, bills
State-owned Rangpur Sugar Mills in Gaibandha is likely to break away from the cash crunch as it has started selling 4,500 tonne of its unsold sugar stock at a reduced rate.
The Daily Star on April 7 ran a report, headlined “Rangpur Sugar Mills: 4,500 tonne unsold sugar puts factory on the back foot”, regarding unpaid salaries and bills at the factory.
Anower Hossain Akanda, managing director of the factory, said Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation, the regulatory authority of the government, has decided to allow all state-owned sugar mills to lower price of sugar by Tk 5 each kilogram.
The decision was taken to speed up sale of around one lakh tonne of unsold sugar at different sugar mills across the country, he added.
Rangpur Sugar Mills currently owes around Tk 11.5 crore to sugarcane suppliers and nearly Tk 6 crore to its employees in unpaid salaries since December 2018.
The government-run sugar mills are suffering from liquidity or cash flow as they had been selling sugar at Tk 50 a kg as opposed to Tk 42 to 43 a kg price of imported sugar that is also cleaner in appearance.
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