Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC)is facing a severe crisis as raw jute suppliers are demanding arrear payment to the tune of over Tk 350 crore to continue supply to factories. Many suppliers have stopped selling raw jute to BJMC mills while others have threatened to stop selling untill arrears not being cleared. The agency has failed to clear bigger part of their bills over the past two years triggering the crisis. Jute supply to government run jute mills has recently slowed down at alarming level with growing risk of shut down of many factories. In fact several factories are not running now while others are operating at half capacity affecting production of jute sacks and yarn. Trading agencies said they can’t supply raw jute if their pending arrears not cleared. On the other hand BJMC fears more mills may face closure if suppliers continue to stop or slow down supply without credible move to arrange payment. BJMC is reportedly suffering from acute shortage of fund although the ministry has a big budget that includes funds to buy raw jute for mills and factories at run at full capacity levels. BJMC management claims they have asked the government to approve funds for clearing the arrears so that they can start payment to suppliers on receiving the new fund. But why such a situation has arisen and when enough funds will arrive to settle bills is not clear. BJMC mills operate at huge losses where misuse of fund is rampant and corruption of union leaders and at management level is causing huge wastage of fund. Trading agency sources blame the BJMC authorities for deferring payment of bills when other controversial expenditure continues unabated. The disclosure said the agency is suffering from acute fund shortage from 2015-16. It had targeted to buy 2614827 quintal in that year but it could buy only 1146120 quintal for fund shortage. Its total price was reportedly at Tk 552 crore. In the following year (2016-17 it reduced the target at 2542431 quintal but the actual buy was little more than 12 quintal and almost entirely on credit. The agency now owes a huge amount facing a critical situation. BJMC information shows up to October 2018 raw jute stock in hands was 153682 quintal. Jute buying seasons runs from June to October-November every year but since it could not buy enough jute over the past two years, the stock has significantly come down in November-December period. Industry sources said stocks may further fall precipitating bigger crisis if supply not being fully restored.
