Bangladesh Tanners’ Association claimed on Monday the ongoing political programmes including nationwide nonstop blockade and intermittent general strikes caused a loss of over Tk 450 crore in the tannery industry in the month of January. At a press conference at Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, the association made a clarion call to the prime minister, Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led alliance and all other political actors to strike a consensus by holding talks to end the political crisis to avoid further loss to the sector.
‘A total of 40 per cent rawhides purchased during the last Eid-ul-Azha are still in the warehouses at different districts and Upazilas. But we are not being able to bring the rawhides to the tannery in Dhaka due to ongoing blockade and other political programmes,’ the BTA president, Shaheen Ahmed, told the press conference.
He claimed that the tanners were not being able to send the hides to Chittagong port for export even with the escort of law enforcers.
In response to a question, he said nobody knows when and where the hides-carrying carriers would come under attack of miscreants on the long way from Dhaka to Chittagong.
Against this backdrop, he claimed, the truck and transport vehicle owners have doubled the fare for carrying the goods.
Furthermore, the foreign buyers were losing their interest to come to Bangladesh to collect hides in the wake of widespread political violence, he added.
Shaheen claimed they were now receiving no new orders from foreign buyers following the eruption of political violence in the country.
In the wake of the loss caused by political violence, the association demanded 10 per cent financial assistance against crust and finished hides to protect the industry and long-term soft loan of Tk 5,000 crore.
In reply to a question, the BTA president said the tanners would not be able to relocate their tannery factories to the Tannery Industrial Estate in Savar even within this year as over 50 per cent work of the project was still unfinished.
‘The work of constructing infrastructure in the zone is also being hampered due to ongoing political programmes,’ he added.
Shaheen said only 40 per cent work of setting up of the central effluent treatment plant in the zone has been completed so far.
-With New Age input
