Textile mills on Tuesday urged the government to ensure easy back-to-back LC opening, a $30 million  export development fund and uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity for the greater interest of the sector.

Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) placed the demand in a press conference where the owners highlighted the ‘prevailing challenges in textiles and way forward at BTMA conference hall in Karwan Bazar.

In his written statement BTMA President Mohammad Ali Khokon claimed the textile mills are running on 50 percent production capacity due to severe gas and electricity crisis.

The sector is running amid loss and if the situation of gas and electricity shortage is prolonged, many entrepreneurs will be forced to shut down their mills.

The BTMA president also urged the woven and knit garment makers to open back-to-back LCs in local currency and buy yarn from the local market to reduce stockpiling of unsold yarn and save US dollars.

He suggested keeping block account, the bank loan amount and interest, during the interim period i.e. until June 2024, with the facility of paying it in easy instalments  next time.

He also opposed illegal import of textile goods that hurts the local small textile factories established to meet domestic demand.

“The government has fixed an export target of $100 billion from the textile and clothing sector by 2030, which is impossible to achieve through import dependent textile products,” Khokon pointed out.

He alleged that a vested group is trying to destroy local textile sector and make Bangladesh a market of other countries. This will be suicidal for locally made products.

Giving an example he said, “Once we were a large producer of jute, the golden fibre of Bangladesh, whose business was diverted to other countries due to wrong policy and mishandling of jute-based industries. The textile sector will be gone to the hands of other countries, if the prevailing problems are not solved immediately.”

Khokon gave some suggestions to save the domestic textile sector from the existing crisis including provision that at least a portion of the yarn produced by BTMA's export-oriented spinning mills gets back-to-back LC facilities.

In order to stop the illegal sale of yarn, cloth and dress-materials imported through bonds, regular raids should be conducted from now on at the places of Narayanganj, Araihajar, Rupganj, Madhabdi, Baburhat, Narsingdi, Belkuchi and Sirajganj and those involved in such illegal activities should be punished.

He asked the government to direct banks to continue opening of LCs for import of raw materials including continuation of EDF facility.

 Fazlul Haque, vice president of the BTMA, and Syed Nurul Islam, director, were also present at the press conference.