No overnight relief from losses
The Bangladesh Glucose and Food Industries Company (BSFIC) will not get rest from the losses anytime soon despite closing six mills.
The sugar mills of the BSFIC have been facing losses for a long time as supervision of the mills showed extra expenditure than actual and the collective bargaining agent (CBA) leaders pocketed open public money by charging extra for the sugarcane they indirectly supplied, although they aren't likely to do so.
Both, control of mills and the CBA leaders were accountable for the losses of the mills, the BSFIC said in its assessment.
For this factor, the government had to perform the mills giving a significant subsidy.
"The mills won't get rest from the losses this season, although sugarcane crushing has halted at six mills since it is not practical to lessen the losses instantly," explained Md Arifur Rahman Apu, chairman of the BSFIC.
However, the expenditure will reduce slightly due to the closure of six mills.
The BSFIC has a target to create around 50,000 tonnes of sugar this season from nine existing mills. The federal government shut six mills in a bid to lessen losses.
In line with the BSFIC, the sugars mills faced a lack of Tk 787.10 crore annually normally from 2015-16 to 2019-20 against sugarcane crushing.
Even so, Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd manufactured Tk 8.85 crore profit per year within the last five years. In the previous fiscal year, the business made a earnings of Tk 11.37 crore.
Average production cost reached Tk 131.40 to Tk 319.34 per kg glucose from 2015-16 to 2019-20. The BSFIC sold it at Tk 52.78 to Tk 57.54 per kg. Losing was between Tk 78.86 and Tk 216.18 per kg.
In December, Sanat Kumar Saha, in that case chairman of the BSFIC, said mill authorities accumulate sugarcane at Tk 4 per kg, but it was proven as Tk 7 per kg. The BSFIC detected the anomalies, he explained.
Saha said the BSFIC has the scope to lessen expenditure and increase earnings by establishing the outlets of Carew & Co (Bangladesh) Ltd in the district level to sell liquor and bio-fertilizer.
The BSFIC earned Tk 120 crore from selling molasses last fiscal year, up from Tk 50 crore every year in the preceding five years.
He said the house ministry was not offering licence for the revenue centres and warehouse of Carew & Co.
The mills must diversify items and modernise operations to recuperate from the losses, he said. Mills should manufacture export-oriented liquor and beer, and other products.
Researchers blame mismanagement, corruption and an absence of proper planning the losses incurred by the state-owned jute and sugars mills.
The rate of sugar extraction from crushing sugarcane is comparatively lower in Bangladesh. It is six to eight % per tonne, down from 12 to 14 % in India and Brazil, according to a report by Dhaka University Professor Mohammad Tanjimuddin Khan and Moshahida Sultana and Researcher Maha Mirza.
