Readymade garment exporters have demanded release of cash subsidy before the coming Eid festival, officials said. They put pressure on the finance division saying that they wanted release of cash incentive to clear the festival allowances of the workers.Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association made the demand in a letter to the finance division secretary on August 30. BKMEA acting president Mansur Ahmed said the government should release at least Tk 800 crore as cash incentive for the association members before the Eid scheduled to be observed on September 13. Officials said Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association also made the same demand saying that release of cash incentive would ease pressure for additional of money on them. The RMG exporters reminded that the government had already fixed a deadline to clear the monthly payments and festival allowances to the workers.The government asked the RMG exporters to pay wages and festival allowance to their workers before September 10 to avoid any ‘untoward situation’ in the industrial belt. On Friday, Garment Workers’ Trade Union Centre demanded that discrepancy on the festival allowance should be removed. Some factories’ workers were given allowance equal to basic salary of a month while some others pay even one-fourth of their basic or less than that, said GWTUC president Montu Ghosh during a rally in front of the National Press Club. The country’s burgeoning RMG sector that employs more than 40 lakh workers, mostly women, accounts for more than 80 per cent of the total annual exports. The RMG exporters enabled the country to earn US$ 28.09 billion out of total exports worth US$ 34.24 billion in the last fiscal year that ended in June. The government provides cash incentive to more than two dozens of export items including the RMG at different rates.Cash incentive, also known as export subsidy, rose by more than 35 per cent to Tk 3,500 crore in fiscal year 2014-15. The amount crossed Tk 4,000 crore in last fiscal year.Finance division officials said around Tk 4,300 crore had been earmarked as cash incentive in the current fiscal budget. The government always releases partial cash subsidy for the exports before Eid festival, they said.
