The jute mills under the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation (BTMC) have incurred a loss of Tk3,168.46 crore in the fiscal year 2020-21.
Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi said this in the parliament responding to a question from Jatiya Party MP Moshiur Rahman Ranga on Thursday.
The jute mills earned Tk484.48 crore and spent Tk3,652.94 crore during the period, he said.
Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the question-and-answer session.
The minister said out of 25 jute mills under BTMC, 24 had been shut and one had been rented out.
Textile villages are being set up in two of the closed 24 mills, he said.
At present (Census 2018) there are 589 weaving factories and 1,16,117 units in the country,he said,replying to a query from Dhaka -18 constituency MP Mohammad Habib Hasan of the ruling party, Golam Dastagir Gazi.
The weaving industry produces about 47.47crore metese of weaving cloth annually, which meets 28% of the country's textile demand (excluding power looms), he said.
Replying to a question from Natore-2 MP Shafiqul Islam Shimul, the Minister has said that at present the number of looms in the country is 290,282.
In reply to a query from MP Begum Lutfunnesa Khan, the Minister said 5.6 lakh tonnes of raw jute had been exported in the 8 months of the current fiscal year. Besides, 5.86 lakh tons raw jute and 7.82 lakh tons of jute products have been exported in the fiscal year 2020-21, he added.