Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has so far canceled the membership of 1,654 RMG manufacturing units due to their non-existence and failure to address the compliance issues.
The decision was made at a board meeting of the BGMEA held yesterday at its office in the capital, said an official.
Following the development, the biennial election of BGMEA for the year 2015-16 is likely to be delayed by three months due to the process for up dating the voters list. The election is scheduled to be held by the end of March 2015.
“The Directorate of Trade Organisations (DTO) of Commerce Ministry in a letter has asked to submit a list of those factories having updated Tax Identification Numbers (TINs) and Trade Licenses to bring transparency in updating the voters’ list for the upcoming poll,” BGMEA Vice President Shahidullah Azim told the Dhaka Tribune.
The election may be delayed by three months, as it would take time to collect the latest data from the members as per the ministry’s direction, said Azim.
“Only the updated TIN and License holders will be eligible member for becoming a voter,” he added.
The BGMEA board yesterday also decided to issue a circuital to its members, seeking the updated Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) and Trade License information but it could not set ant time frame for submitting the required data to the ministry, said a director of the BGMEA on condition of anonymity.
He also said the apex trade body of the apparel industry would form a sub-committee to look into the issues and set time frame for submission of data.
The BGMEA canceled membership as they did not pay subscription fees in due time and failed to comply several compliance conditions in line with the article 7 of BGMEA constitution, said a statement issued yesterday.
The memberships of 1,654 RMG units were canceled in between 2002 and 2014 from Dhaka and Chittagong area.
After the cancellation of membership, the total membership of the BGMEA will be 4,222 instead of 5,876, said the statement.
In 2014, BGMEA canceled license of 341 units from Dhaka and 104 from Chittagong area while it had canceled 502 RMG units in 2002, 586 units in 2012, 101 units in 2013 and the licenses of 20 units were canceled as the owners had appealed for scraping their memberships.