A Carpet industry- need strong Govt.s support
The government needs to formulate a comprehensive policy to salvage the ailing carpet industry, industry sources said. Out of total six jute carpet mills and one jute braided factory, four have ceased their productions in the past few years as imported synthetic coverings, which enjoy low import duty, captured the local market sidelining jute carpets. Bangladesh exported several millions of jute carpets and floor coverings only a few years ago, but the volume has marked a drastic fall due to reducing support from the local market. Industry people emphasised streamlining the jute carpet and jute floor covering industry as it has a bright prospect of gaining a strong base. "It's also needed as the survival of jute heavily depends on diversification of products because the traditional market has been losing the competitive edge over the synthetic products," said Shahedul Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Jute Goods Association (BJGA). He said the import of synthetic floor coverings was banned to protect the local industry and jute. "Most floor covering factories were running well because they had market abroad too," he said. Later, he said, the ban on import of all kinds of floor covering was withdrawn with the imposition of high tariff and import duty. During 2001-2002, the tariff value for imported floor coverings was 30 dollars for per square metre with additional 100 per cent supplementary duty. But, the BJGA chairman said, during 2002-2003 an import duty of 32.5 per cent was imposed by withdrawing both the tariff and supplementary duty. "With this reduction in the import duty, the imported synthetic carpets and other imported floor coverings have become cheaper compared to local jute floor coverings," he said. Diversified jute products can save the jute industry and the jute growers, but the government policy has not been favourable to support this sector, Shahedul Islam regretted. He said there is an immense potential for our jute floor coverings in the export market because of the silky look of jute fibre. The developed countries are more and more inclined towards natural fibres compared to synthetic ones, he added. "This year, the cash subsidy for this sector was reduced from 10 per cent to 5 per cent although it should have been increased to promote export of jute coverings as the raw material is 100 per cent of Bangladesh origin," he said. The BJGA chairman regretted that the policy of cash subsidy did not favour the jute industry whereas the textile industry gets higher benefits although their base raw material is of foreign origin. "Jute floor coverings value addition is much higher than that of the standard jute products and it is highly labour intensive compared to the traditional jute goods," he said. According to him, for any industry to have successful export growth a local sales outlet is required for it to sell the overrun production, wastage sale and to make sample productions. Thus, Shahedul Islam said, it is imperative that a favourable policy be formulated by the government to create local demand for jute floor coverings. "This can be achieved only by protection against imported synthetics or other floor coverings." To salvage the sick jute carpet and jute floor covering industry, he said, all imports of floor coverings need to be banned. "The existing factories in Bangladesh have enough capacity to meet local demand." "The fire-retardant quality, bio-degradability and environment-friendly characteristics of jute have definite edge over synthetic floor coverings. The jute industry needs to focus more on the floor coverings for revitalising the jute sector," the BJGA chairman said.