The ministry of textiles and jute (MoTJ) has sought a fresh allocation of over Tk 3.55 billion from the government for the state-run Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC), officials said. The amount of money will be spent on jute procurement by BJMC and payment of its different dues, they added.Earlier, the government released Tk 4.60 billion in favour of BJMC. Besides, it released Tk 2.70 billion to help the state-run entity in purchasing raw jute and paying gratuity and wages to its employees recently, they mentioned.BJMC’s 10.33 acres of land were handed over to the youth and sports ministry in exchange of Tk 10.85 billion. The two allocations have been made from the land price, said a high official of the BJMC.”The government has released Tk 7.30 billion for BJMC from the land price (Tk 10.85 billion) to date. We have sought the rest of amount from the land price to make payment of different dues,” he said.It is very difficult for cash-strapped BJMC to operate jute mills after payment of its all dues. On the other hand, pressure from the Collective Bargaining Agent (CBA) has been increasing day by day for making different outstanding payments to employees, according to sources concerned.The corporation has set target to procure 2.57 million bales of raw jute in the current fiscal year (FY) 2016-17. An amount of Tk 12 billion will be required to meet the procurement target, according to the data available with BJMC.At present, BJMC is the biggest employer in the industrial sector of the country. It provides direct jobs to about 70,000 workers as well as 5,500 officers and employees supporting the livelihood of around 6.0 million farm families. More than 50 million people are directly or indirectly involved with jute and jute industry.Now the state-run entity is operating 26 mills, including three non-jute industries. There are seven mills in Dhaka zone, ten in Chittagong and nine in Khulna.
