Bangladesh's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Textiles and Jute Ministry has recommended increased allocation to the sector in the next fiscal year beginning July 1, 2014, for the overall development of textile and jute sectors. The first meeting of the committee headed by Saber Hossain Chowdhury was held earlier this week at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, BSS reported. The committee observed that the Tk 1.21 billion allocated for the textiles and jute sector in the 2013-14 annual development programme (ADP) was inadequate and recommended increasing the allocation in the next fiscal year. The committee recommended that production of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Corporation, Bangladesh Silk Board and Bangladesh Handloom Board should be increased. It further recommended quick implementation of the law making mandatory use of jute bags for packaging rice, instead of plastic bags.
The committee suggested that awareness on using jute bags should be created through advertisements in one month. Besides the committee members, the meeting was attended by Textiles and Jute Secretary and concerned senior government officials. Meanwhile, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has slashed the tax at source on all garment products by 0.5 percent to 0.3 percent, which will be applicable till June 2015. With the presence of more than 5,000 garment factories that together employ nearly 4.2 million workers, Bangladesh is currently the second-largest garment exporter in the world, next only to China. During July-March 2013-14, the exports of readymade garments from Bangladesh increased by 15.15 percent to US$ 18.052 billion, as against exports of $15.676 billion made during the corresponding period of the previous fiscal, as per the data from the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB).
