Home ›› 07 May 2020 ›› World Biz
The disbursement of wages of workers and employees of export-oriented industries for April -- under the government-announced stimulus package for the sector -- is getting delayed as the factory owners are restructuring the wages. The workers who worked being physically present in the factories will get full salary and who worked partially will get the money as per the ratio. And the workers who could not join the work will get 65 percent of their gross salary, said insiders.
Measures were taken to send money to workers’ bank and mobile bank accounts on Tuesday. For disbursement of wages, the banks took into consideration the salary sheets provided to them by the factory owners while applying for loans under the stimulus package. However, on Monday, factory owners met State Minister for Labour and Employment Ministry Monnujan Sufian. After the meeting, different factories have been preparing a new salary sheet. Some factories already sent the restructured salary sheet to the banks on Tuesday, while some could not prepare it. Workers of a few factories are expected to get salaries into their accounts today (Thursday) under the new salary sheet, said the insiders, adding that workers of just a few factories got salaries on Tuesday.
As per the circular of Bangladesh Bank, owners have to pay April’s salaries to their employees on the last working day of the month. But many factory owners delayed applying for loans under the government-announced Tk5000 crore fund to be utilised for the disbursement of wages of workers and employees of export-oriented industries for three months from April to June. The central bank on May 3 released Tk2,000 crore to the banks from stimulus package. Workers were expected to receive the salaries on that day, but the process got stuck at the last moment.
As per resolution of State Minister of Labour and Employment Monnujan Sufian’s meeting with factory owners and worker leaders on Monday, workers of running factories will get full salaries while those of closed ones will get 65 of their gross salaries, said sources present in the meeting.
However, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) has decided that the workers who worked full time will get full salary, and those who did not come to factories will get 65 percent of their gross salary.
Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director of mobile financial service (MFS) provider Nagad, said they have so far disbursed wages of three factories, and that they are disbursing money as per the instruction of banks.
On the other hand, MFS provider bKash said they have not disbursed salaries through their channel yet, and are waiting for getting the go-ahead from the banks.
In this regard, BGMEA Director Mohammed Nasir said no salaries were disbursed to the workers’ mobile accounts till Wednesday. Salaries may be distributed from today (Thursday), he said, adding that all the workers might not get salaries at the same time.
To fight the adverse impact of coronavirus on the country's economy, the government on March 25 announced a stimulus package of Tk5,000 crore for export-oriented industries so that industries could pay their workers. The central bank in this regards issued a guideline to disburse the amount as a soft loan to factory owners at 2 percent service charge and the amount is payable in two months. But the money won’t be provided to the factory owners. Relevant banks will send the money directly into workers’ bank accounts. Therefore, the central bank instructed the workers to open mobile bank accounts by April 20 so their wages can be channelled through the accounts. The central bank asked all mobile banking operators to charge 0.8 percent or Tk8 for cashing out Tk1,000. Of the amount, Tk4 will be paid by the respective banks and the rest will be borne by beneficiaries.
A total of 2,200 factories applied to the Bangladesh Bank for loans worth Tk3,150 crore through 47 banks. Of them, 1,615 are BGMEA members and 500 BKMEA members. The remaining 35 factories are based in export processing zones.
The export-oriented industries receiving loans under the package will have to pay back the fund within two years after a six-month of grace period. It means the installment starts in January 2021 but ends in June 2022.
hr-ak/at/nm
