The government has taken a plan to create a Tk 50 billion special fund with an aim to facilitate the country’s jute millers, officials said. A senior official of the Ministry of Textiles and Jute (MoTJ) told the FE, “Process is on to prepare a proposal in this regard on completion of which it would be sent to the Ministry of Finance and then to the Bangladesh Bank (BB).” The advisory committee on jute took the decision in its last meeting on September 20 with State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam in the chair. “Garments and textile sectors can use fund from the existing EDF for importing their industrial raw materials. But the jute sector can’t get low-cost loan facility from the fund although the sector uses domestic raw materials,” a source in the Bangladesh Jute Mills Association (BJMA) said. He also said, “We at the meeting requested the authorities concerned to form a fund like the EDF. It is now imperative for the greater good of jute sector to create a fund of EDF’s kind with the same rate of interest.” Besides, Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) has called for bringing down the interest rate to single digit replacing the existing double digit rate. The BB provides loan from the EDF to the exporters to help them import industrial raw materials with a view to manufacturing the exportable items. A BB official said the EDF was launched in 2005 with an initial size of $100 million which was later increased to the shape of $2.0 billion. He, however, informed a $300 million fund is available with the central bank at a low interest rate for importing capital machinery which the country’s jute sector can also utilize subject to issuance of a letter in this connection by the MoTJ. Earlier, the central bank initiated a re-financing scheme worth Tk 2.0 billion for jute sector, of which Tk 800 million still remains unutilized, another BB official said, adding that it is also possible to increase the re-financing fund after disbursing the existing fund. When asked, BJMA Vice-President Shaikh Akram Hossain told the FE on Monday that the government is relentlessly working for the development of the country’s jute sector. It has already taken different steps in this regard. He informed that a meeting was also held on Sunday at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) regarding the formation of the proposed fund. BJMA Secretary A Barik Khan said, “We have recently asked the government to form a low-cost fund for jute sector which is very import for the country’s overall economy.”
