News Report The government is planning to have a new law-Textile Industries Establishment Act-2015. The new law, according to the Directorate of Textiles will help streamline the country’s garment sector in line with the international need of compliances. The compliances include the use of chemicals for shining the textile goods, environment and the labour rights. Recently, the European Union (EU) has extended the ban on the use of nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE), which is being used for cleaning and dyeing the textiles. The new law will empower the Directorate of Textiles to monitor the chemicals used in the textile and garments industries. The new Textile Industries Establishment Act will also empower the Directorate of Textile to crack down on all illegal or unregistered garments industries, which are running ignoring the international need of compliances. The proposed law contains a provision of mandatory registration of all garment and textile industries. According to the survey of the Directorate of Textile, a total of 576 garment or textile units are running without having any registration or licence. All these units will not be allowed to operate without registration. It was told that citing the example of unregistered or unlicensed garments units, Bangladesh is being shown as non-compliance country. According to the provision of the proposed new law, officers designated from the directorate of textile can inspect the factories within the domain of the new law at any time. The factory owners will be bound to provide documents as wanted by the inspection team. The directorate of textile will prepare a database of the industries based on the information available to them. The new law has been released in the website of the Jute and Textile Ministry and all the stakeholders have been requested to pass their comments on different provisions of the law. An inter-ministerial meeting is expected to be held at the end of this month to give final shape to the law and thereafter it will be sent to the Cabinet for its nod, the Directorate of Textile source said. In the meantime Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) has expressed its reservations about the mandatory registration clause of the new law. The BKMEA said that registration clause should be applied for the new establishments and license for the existing factories should be renewed based on the previous licence. Until 2013, garments or textile industries took registration from different source which included the Commerce Ministry and the Board of Investment (BOI). It was brought under the domain of the directorate of textile from 2013.
