The Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) has urged the government to take an effective decision within the next 72 hours to save Bangladesh's troubled textile sector—especially spinning mills.
According to the organization's top leaders, if urgent action is not taken, the domestic yarn and textile industry will face a major disaster.
At a view-sharing meeting organized at the capital's Gulshan Club on Sunday (December 28), BTMA President Showkat Aziz Russell said: "A decision should be taken within the next 72 hours. The situation is no longer tolerable."
Highlighting the depth of the crisis, he also spoke about the condition of his factory.
"One of my five mills has already closed. I am looking for ways to close the rest of the mills as well. If this continues, maybe one day I will have to see the BTMA president without textiles."
The country's spinning mills are in dire straits due to a sudden increase in low-priced yarn imports from India, the president of the BTMA also said.
He claimed that yarn imports from India increased by 137% in the last fiscal year, resulting in the closure of at least 50 yarn mills in the country.
He said Indian traders are dumping yarn in Bangladesh at a price of about $0.30 per kg. Due to this unfair competition, domestic yarn mills are not able to survive. The closed mills had an investment of Tk500 to Tk700 crore, which is very difficult to restart.
The BTMA president also said: "We are gradually becoming over-dependent on India in the field of yarn. India has stopped cotton and yarn exports several times in the past without any reason. This dependence can pose a big risk to the country's industrial sector in the future."
In response to a question, Showkat Aziz Russell said that due to low-priced yarn imports from India, yarn worth about Tk10,000 crore is currently lying unsold in the country's spinning mills, the market price of which is about Tk12,000 crore.
However, he said that he is not in favor of completely stopping yarn imports from India. He said: "We do not want to stop import. We want the trade deficit to reduce and overdependence to decrease. Otherwise, first the ready-made garment connection industry and later the main ready-made garment industry will face major losses."
Questioning the government's activities in the past year, the BTMA president said: "The current government has not been able to build new factories, but has closed them. More than 250 RMG factories have been closed, more than 50 textile mills have been closed. More than half of the factories are now running at half capacity. The question is - what has the government achieved in the last one year?"
Russell demanded 10% cash assistance in direct and indirect exports of yarn to overcome the current crisis.
He also demanded an increase in the size of the Export Development Fund (EDF) and a reduction in interest rates, a reduction in interest rates on bank loans, and a grace period for loan repayment.
The leaders of the organization, including former BTMA president M Matin Chowdhury, Mohammad Ali Khokon, and former director Rajib Haider, were also present at the meeting.
