The Ministry of Textiles and Jute (MoTJ) handed over Tk574 crore to Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) on Wednesday for payment of dues salaries to the workers of the state-run closed jute mills.
The amount will also be used for payment to raw jute suppliers and for other expenditures.
A high official of the MoTJ said on Wednesday that the Finance Division approved on May 10 a payment of Tk574 crore in favour of the Textiles and Jute Ministry.
The ministry disbursed the money to BJMC on Wednesday.
The ministry official said that of the total amount, over Tk327 crore will be used for payment of salaries (dues) of 1980 retired officials and workers of the jute mills while Tk234 crore to 2,217 raw jute suppliers and over Tk121 crore to 1,119 suppliers of store items and carrying costs.
The ministry official further said that they had instructed the BJMC not to spend the money for purposes other than the payment of due salaries, expenses for raw jute and store items procurement.
He said that the BJMC had also been asked to follow the existing government rules while handing over the money to the retired jute mills officials and workers.
He further said that within seven working days after the payment, lists with the names of officials and workers of the closed jute mills and suppliers of raw jute and other store items who received money must be sent to the Finance Division.
Earlier, the government on June 30, 2020 shut down 26 state-run jute mills due to recurrence of financial losses.
The closure also left thousands of workers and officials jobless.
The workers of the jute mills and insiders of the sector have long been calling upon the government to allocate one time financial allocation for reactivating the government jute mills.
They also called upon the government to make it mandatory for the government offices for purchasing jute products.
