Govt urged not to allow yarn import through Benapole

Spinning mill owners yesterday urged the government not to allow yarn import through Benapole land port to rein in smuggling and safeguard the domestic investment in primary textile sector.
They alleged that the importers often bring in a lot of yarn through Benapole under false declaration.
The government move to allow yarn import through Benapole will be suicidal for the country's spinning sub-sector, said Abdul Hai Sarker, president of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA), at a press conference at the association's office.
The textiles and jute ministry recently took a move to allow yarn import through Benapole, saying that the imports will be sold to the local weavers at lower prices.
The production capacity of the industrial units, especially readymade garment and spinning sub-sectors, has declined by 50 percent now because of acute shortages of gas and power, he said.
"The spinners are incurring losses in the face of production shortfall in their factories," Sarker said.
They will fail to sell their products in the local market and lose competitiveness to India if the government allows yarn import through Benapole, he added.
The prices of raw cotton used for making yarn have increased by 60 percent over the last three months on the global market, which also affected the spinning sub-sector badly, the BTMA president said.
The government can withdraw duty on import of yarn through Chittagong Port, the spinners said.
A section of local traders are interested to import through the Benapole land port despite availability of the item in the local market, as they can import through false declaration in connivance with some dishonest government officials, Sarker said.
He said the government move is not acceptable as the yarn used by the local weavers is available in the domestic market.
Also, there is no need to maintain lead-time for the weavers as they manufacture products for the local users, Sarker said.
At present, at least 200 mills supply yarn to the local weavers and employ around two lakh people directly and ten lakh indirectly. The amount of investment in those mills is around Tk 10,000 crore now, he said.