Labour and Employment Adviser Brig Gen (Retd) Dr Sakhawat Hussain on Tuesday said that the arrears of Beximco workers will be paid by February, after selling the mortgaged shares of Beximco Pharma and Shinepukur Ceramics.
The adviser came up with the announcement at a press conference held at the Secretariat in Dhaka.
Earlier, he attended a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee to review the labour and business situation of Beximco Industrial Park.
Adviser Sakhawat said that Tk550 to Tk600 crore would be needed to pay the arrears of the workers of all lay-off organizations of Beximco.
"The government will ensure the payment of salaries and allowances by February if this amount cannot be raised through the sale of shares," he said.
The adviser also revealed that the Beximco Group had taken loans amounting to Tk28,544.14 crore from 12 banks, and an investigation would be conducted to determine how these loans were approved.
He said that this loan issue is a larger scandal than the theft of one billion reserves from Bangladesh Bank.