1. To safeguard interests of producers and manufacturers of jute and jute products estimated at about 4.35 million families, the Government in January 2015, approved orders for mandatory packaging of food grains in jute bags and subsidy to Jute Corporation of India to support MSP operations in jute. The validity of the order was later extended up to 31.12.2015.
2. Minimum Support Price (MSP) for raw jute and mesta is fixed every year to encourage farmers to grow more jute. It has been fixed at Rs.2700 per quintal for 2015-16, marking an increase of 12.5% over 2014-15. The Jute Corporation of India is supported by the Government with a subsidy of Rs.204 crore for meeting the operational expenditure for four years starting 2014-15, in preparedness for Minimum Support Price (MSP) operations at the start of every year.
3. The Ministry is in constant touch with various stakeholders, including consumers and state Governments, for promoting more usage of value-added diversified products, development of higher technology products and to expedite the use of assets with state-owned jute mills. Multiple review meetings were held by the Union Textiles Minister with various stakeholders in this regard.
4. Jute Common Facility Centres: Jute Common Facility Centres (CFCs) scheme has been launched on 1.9.2015 for providing avenues for value addition, production, quality assurance through construction facility, direct support to members, integrated design, product development, training and market development etc. Five Common Facility Centre (CFC) are sanctioned at the five locations in West Bengal (3), Assam (1) and Bihar (1) in major jute growing district. An amount of Rs.10 crore has been allocated for 2015-16.
5. Jute Geotextiles:- For promotion of large scale use of Jute Geotextiles for control of erosion, road construction, river embankments and in slope stabilization, major Government Departments and State Governments are advised to promote use of jute as geo-textiles. Special scheme for promotion of Geo-Textiles has been launched in the North Eastern States on 24.3.2015 with an outlay of Rs.427 crores.
6. Asset Utilisation and Revival of Jute Mills of NJMC:
The National Jute Manufacturers Corporation Limited (NJMC) was formed in 1980 by the nationalization and amalgamation of the following six jute undertakings: National Company Limited—Sankrail, Alexandra Jute Mills Limited—Jagaddal, Union Jute Company Limited—Sealdah, Khardah Company Limited—Titagarh, The Kinnison Jute Mills Company Ltd—Titagarh andRBHM Jute Mills Pvt., Limited—Katihar, Bihar.
In view of continuous cash loss and complete erosion of net worth, NJMC was declared sick by the Board for Industrial and Financial Reconstruction (BIFR). The proposal for the revival of NJMC was approved by the Cabinet with the directions to close three mills (National, Alexandra & Union in West Bengal), and to monetise the closed mills through sale of assets. However, as the sale of asset without converting the land use from factory/ industry to residential /commercial use, would not give adequate returns, a Transaction Advisor (Price Waterhouse Coopers Ltd.) was appointed to explore various options for monetisation.
Based on the draft report of PWC, it is proposed to develop a garment park at Union mill, on the lines of Paridhaan Garment Park set up by WBIDC and also for setting up Integrated Textile Parks with developed industrial sheds at the Alexandra and National mills, through a joint venture with NBCC or another PSU. This initiative will help in expanding textile industry and also serve to generate employment, apart from monetisation of the assets.
7. A strategy has been formulated by the Government to address the price rise of raw jute.
Hon’ble Minister for Textiles, Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar chaired a meeting with the stakeholders on the 23rd November, 2015 to evolve a suitable strategy for stabilizing the raw jute market and for tackling the situation of rise in the price of raw jute. After discussion, a three-pronged strategy has been formulated by the Government:
o Stock limits, de-hoarding operations: Jute Commissioner has been requested to take appropriate measures for notifying stock limits for raw jute for balers, traders and millers and to undertake de-hoarding measures with the help of State Governments, so that jute produced during the season becomes available for jute mills for continuing their production, as was last done in 2005.
o Lifting of export ban by Bangladesh: Department of Commerce and Ministry of External Affairs have been requested to take up the matter with their counterparts in Republic of Bangladesh for lifting the ban on export of raw jute by Bangladesh.
o Promoting jute cultivation: Appropriate long-term measures shall be taken by the State Governments and Department of Agriculture, Government of India for encouraging jute cultivation and checking its declining trend. (Source:PIB Release)