BGMEA, BKMEA oppose BTMA’s demand to govt for incentives

The Bangladesh Textiles Mills Association on Tuesday demanded 'special incentives to protect the local factories from being shut down' in the wake of the drastic fall of yarn prices in the international market.

But the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association opposed the demand for increasing the incentive against exports to 15 per cent from the existing five per cent at a meeting in the secretariat.

The textiles and jute minister, Abdul Latif Siddique, while presiding over the meeting said that all the three organisations should sit together to devise a mechanism that will enable them to face the ups and downs in the international market prices.

He, however, said that the situation was not bad enough for the government to provide special incentives to the backward industries in the export-oriented apparel and yarn sector.

'India is selling yarn at the price of cotton…The government should give us special incentives to protect the local backward industries against this sort of dumping which is having an adverse impact on our spinning and textile mills,' said BTMA's president, Jahangir Alamin.

He said that the industries were also being hit hard by the shortage of gas and electricity.

'It is very sad that everyone in the industrial sector wants to operate in a free style. You must discuss your problems together and come to a solution for survival in this competitive situation,' the minister told the meeting.

He said that Bangladesh was taking advantage of cheap labour here in the readymade garment sector.

BKMEA's president Selim Osman, opposing the demand for increased incentive, called upon the textiles mill owners not to increase or decrease the prices of yarn in keeping with the global scenario. 'Let us all sit together and negotiate,' he said.

He said the textiles mill owners made a lot of money when they abruptly increased the price of yarn to seven dollars a kilogram from four dollars a few months back.

Many spinning mill owners stocked yarn at that time to make more money, but the price has now come down to 4.6 dollars, said representatives of the BGMEA and BKMEA. A total of 256 textile mills out of 350, according to BTMA, are export-oriented.

Source: New Age