|
|
Change Your Life! |
Modernization project for Karnafuli Paper Mills |
|
News
|
|
|
August 24, 2000
Chandraghona (UNB) - The government will undertake a Tk400 crore balancing modernisation rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE) project for Karnafuli Paper Mills (KPM) to enhance its annual the production capacity by 20,000 tons. Tenders dropped by international companies for the project are now under scrutiny, Industries Minister Tofail Ahmed said here Tuesday while addressing a meeting of workers and employees of the KPM at Karnafuli View Club in the mill campus. He said work on BMRE will start very soon to modernise the decades-old paper mill and raise its annual production capacity to 50,000 tons from 30,000 tons at present. Established in 1953 in the hilly area, country's biggest paper mill was initially capable of exporting its products after meeting the domestic demand. But with manifold increase in demand, the mill can now meet 25 percent of local requirement estimated at 120,000 tons. The gap is met mostly by import although there are some paper industries in private sector. Last year KPM produced 30,306 tons of paper and sustained a loss of Tk 16 crore mainly due to higher production cost. Tofail cited KPM, an enterprise of BCIC, as another example of a profitable enterprise becoming a loosing concern due to wrong policy of the government. He said setting up of pulp plants in KPM and three other public sector paper mills at a cost of Tk 40 crore proved futile and left the industry in a dire situation with interest bearing heavy loans. He said, BNP government also rendered Khulna Newsprint Mills a loosing enterprise by reducing newsprint price by 50 percent than the market price only to benefit the dealers loyal to the party. He said the present government removed import tariff anomalies between raw materials and finished products. The minister said government will soon announce new wages for industrial workers giving retrospective effect from July 1997. He called upon the workers to see that the overhead expenditure is reduced and their overtime bill justified. "You will have to come out from the vicious circle of loss-making for your own existence as the government cannot bear it for an indefinite period." Presided over by the Managing Director of KPM, Md Zahurul Haq, the meeting was addressed by the local MP and Chairman of CHT task force Dipankar Talukder, Chairman of Rangamati Zilla Parishad Chingkio Roaza, BCIC Chairman M Anwarul Haq, Managing Director of Karnafuli Royan and Chemical Ccomplex (KRC) Md Saidul Haq, KPM CBA president Kazi Zainal Abedin, CBA general secretary Md Shahjahan. Earlier, Tofail visited different sections of KPM and KRC. He assured KRC workers and employees of the government's plan to take another BMRE project for KRC to utilize its full potentiality. The minister also visited the chipping and handling plant of KPM at Kaptai where bamboo and wood for KPM are chipped and then transferred to mills for producing paper. Earlier, the minister visited the Chittagong Dry Dock, an enterprise of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation at Patenga. He assured the workers that the government was not thinking of privatization of the profit making enterprise. In the evening, the minister attended the grand conference of janmastami of Lord Krishna at JM Sen Hall in the city as chief guest. Presided over by the president of the janmastami udjapan committee, Nani Gopal Saha, the conference was attended by the parliamentary Advisor to the PM, Suranjit Sengupta. |