5 factories suspended

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters' Association yesterday suspended the membership of five factories that were housed in Rana Plaza, a building in Savar that collapsed on Wednesday morning.
Suspension of a garment factory's membership means it would not be permitted to export any apparel and import any raw materials.
In other words, it means the BGMEA would not give the factory any utilisation declaration (UD), which refers to an amount of imported fabric that the factory can use under a bond in export-oriented garment production.
The garment manufacturer would not receive any service from the BGMEA either.
The five factories are Ether Tex, New Wave Bottoms, New Wave Style, Phantom Apparels and Phantom Tac.
The BGMEA, a platform of garment factory owners, also announced Tk 1 lakh for the families of each of the victims who died in the collapse.
“We suspended the activities of the factories because they remained open despite shutdown instructions from the BGMEA,” said Reaz-Bin-Mahmood, vice-president (finance) of the association.
“We want legal action against whoever is responsible for the tragedy in Savar [on the outskirts of Dhaka],” he told a press briefing on the BGMEA premises in the capital.
According to the BGMEA directory, 377 workers were supposed to be in Ether Tex, 526 in New Wave Bottoms, 1,073 in New Wave Style, 739 in Phantom Apparels and 407 in Phantom Tac during the collapse.