Employees of spinning mills in Bangladesh have urged the government to take immediate action to prevent a planned industry shutdown from 1 February, warning that it would leave roughly 10 lakh workers without a job and severely disrupting the economy.
The call came at a press conference organised by spinning mill employees at a hotel in Dhaka’s Banani on Wednesday, after mill owners issued an ultimatum to stop operations due to delays in implementing decisions taken by the commerce ministry.
Azhar Ali, chief operating officer of Salma Group, said the spinning industry, a key backward linkage of the textile and apparel sector, has been pushed into crisis due to long-standing policy discrimination, excessive reliance on bond facilities and lack of long-term planning.
He said around 2 lakh officials and employees and 8 lakh workers are currently employed by the sector, with all of them facing unemployment if mills are shut down.
Ali added that such a scenario would harm the overall economy and threaten social stability.
Against this backdrop, the speakers demanded at least a 10 per cent cash incentive for a minimum of two years to align domestic yarn prices with those of neighbouring countries.
They also called for reducing the free-on-cost (FOC) import facility to 15-20 per cent from the existing 50 per cent.
Furthermore, they urged the government to form a commission comprising representatives of major trade bodies, sector experts and government officials to resolve existing problems and formulate a sustainable policy framework.
Jamuna Group Director ABM Sirajul Islam, also president of the Bangladesh Yarn Marketing Professionals Association, said mills have been operating at only 50 per cent capacity for the last two years, making it impossible to sustain operations amid rising costs.
Other speakers criticised delays in policy decisions and warned that unchecked bonded imports are undermining local spinners, despite Bangladesh having achieved self-sufficiency in producing 10-30 count cotton yarn.
They stressed that the textile and garment sectors are complementary, not adversarial, and called on the government to act swiftly so that no situation arises where factories are forced to shut down.
