The five units of National Jute Manufacturers Corporation Ltd. (NJMC), namely, Kinnisson, Khardah, National, Union and Alexandra; and the Bird Jute & Exports Ltd. (BJEL) have been declared sick in the state of West Bengal during the last 10 years. With the approval of Cabinet and after the sanctioning of the Revival Scheme of Rs 1562.98 crores, by the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) , the 2 units of NJMC namely Khardah and Kinnison are under revival . The revival scheme inter- alia includes financial restructuring , grant of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) to all the employees of NJMC , running of three mills of NJMC namely Kinnison & Khardah in West Bengal and RBHM in Katihar, Bihar and closure of the remaining three mills namely National, Union & Alexandra. As per the Revival Scheme, all the employees of NJMC have been granted VRS and production has been started in the three mills namely Kinnison, Khardah & RBHM, Katihar.
The Government declares Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Raw Jute every year to encourage the jute farmers to produce more raw jute. The Government of India has launched the Jute Technology Mission (JTM) as a major initiative for overall development of the jute industry and growth of the jute sector with a total outlay of Rs.355.55 crores. Under the JTM, several schemes were operational under the Mini Mission I, II, III & IV for the overall growth of jute sector. Mini Mission-I aimed towards strengthening agriculture research and development in jute sector for improving the yield and quality. Mini Mission-II was targeted towards transfer of improved technology and agronomic practices in production and post harvesting phase. Under Mini-Mission-III, market linkage of raw jute provided in all jute growing states. Mini Mission-IV provided for modernization of jute industry, upgradation of skills, market promotion and exports which helped to increase demand of raw jute. The major international competition is from Bangladesh which provides 7.5 % export subsidy to its jute goods exporters.
Due to the said efforts, the production of Raw Jute has been consistent to meet the demand of jute industry and many jute Mills have been modernised resulting in increased efficiency in terms of cost of production. In the recent Joint Working Group (JWG) meeting held in Dhaka, the Government of Bangladesh has been requested to reconsider the export subsidy being provide by them to the jute goods exporters. The Government has given subsidy to the jute mills amounting to Rs. 104.36 crore for modernisation under JTM scheme to install new machineries. The information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Textiles Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar in Rajya Sabha today.