State minister faults finance ministry for flagging jute fortunes

The government is sincere about the expansion of jute products, but things are stuck in the finance ministry, State Minister for Textiles and Jute Mirza Azam has alleged.

“There are many conspiracies against our jute in the World Bank. I believe some ghosts of the World Bank are in our finance ministry as well,” he told a programme on Monday.

Azam raised the allegation saying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declared two years ago that jute products would be considered agricultural products, but it has not happened yet.

The government gives 20 percent intensive for export of agro-products, among other benefits for these products.

“The prime minister ordered in 2016 to include diversified jute products as agro-products. The files are moving for past two years. I have to speak to officials from one desk to another even after being a minister,” Azam said.   

“We have even tasked an official with looking after the matter. The file is moving from Bangladesh Bank to Krishi Bank to the finance ministry. Two years have been lost.

“I’ve the latest update of yesterday. The file is now at the finance ministry’s monitoring cell,” he added, clearing why he is pointing the finger particularly at the ministry.

Azam also said he thought Finance Minister AMA Muhith was ‘actually against jute’.

“He seems to dislike jute. That’s why his officials are dallying around to list jute as an agro-product,” the state minister said.

He said the finance ministry has traded several letters with the Bangladesh Bank on the issue.

“It seems they are researching the matter as this is the first time any product has been asked to be included in the list of agro-products. But it’s not case. We have 40 items on the list of agro-products,” Azam said.

Azam also said he would present the records of letters traded between government offices in past two years on the issue to the prime minister l, who is scheduled to join the jute ministry’s National Jute Day programme on National Jute Day.

He hoped the problem would be solved ‘very soon’ with Hasina’s intervention.

“We will get over the situation very soon and our manufacturers of jute products will get bank facilities,” he said.

The finance ministry’s comment on the allegation raised by Azam was not available immediately.

The Economic Reporters’ Forum organised the programme, a roundtable, at Dhaka’s CIRDAP Auditorium a day before National Jute Day.

Bangladesh has earned around $662 million against a target of $601 million in first seven months of the current fiscal year, marking a 17 percent year-on-year growth.