Jute millers of Bangladesh will receive export credit at 8 percent interest rate, as both, government-owned and private banks agreed to provide them credit at the rate of 8.0 percent interest, which includes 1 percent service charge along with the existing 7 percent interest applicable to export sectors.
The agreement was made in a meeting, held at the Secretariat and chaired by the Textile and Jute Minister Mr. Abdul Latif Siddiqui, wherein senior officials of the finance ministry, managing directors and the executives of different state-owned and private commercial banks and representatives from private jute mills and state-run Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation (BJMC) marked their presence.
The meeting was convened to review the opinion of the Finance Ministry on the recommendations sent by the Jute Advisory Committee. In a bid to resolve the financial problems, the matter of keeping the cash credit loans of BJMC and private mills in a 'block account' for 2.5 years, was also discussed.
Jute mills run by the BJMC would get 100 percent loan rescheduling facility, while the private sector millers would get 30 percent loan rescheduling out of their outstanding loans. The outstanding loans of BJMC and private sector mills with banking system total to Tk 12 billion and Tk 14 billion respectively.
However, the Textile and Jute Minister promised the private jute millers, to increase this rescheduling facility up to 50 percent, following their appeals. The recently imposed ban, by the government, on raw jute export was also the topic of discussion during the meeting.
Moreover, the textile and jute minister informed the attendees that the government would conduct investigations into raw jute export to India, done at the time when, the prices for fibre were much higher in the Indian markets than in Bangladesh and would also scrutinize export of around 0.4 million bales of raw jute in the name of rejected grades (BTR).
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India