Bangladesh lifts ban on Indian yarn

The National Board of Revenue issued a notification late yesterday withdrawing the ban on import of Indian yarn through Benapole land port, said officials, adding four counts of yarn could be imported through the port.

"Yarn import has been opened for all through the land port," Textile and Jute Minister Abdul Latif Siddique said.

Earlier, the bonded warehouses alone were allowed to import yarn.The decision to lift the ban was taken despite objections from the country's spinning mill owners, who were opposing the import of Indian yarn fearing that they would fail to sell their products in the local market.

Workers of over 1.3 million handloom and power loom units across Bangladesh, who were on an indefinite strike demanding duty-free import of Indian yran though the land port, today returned to work.

According Bangladesh Handloom and Power-loom Owners' Association, about 0.6 million looms forced closure and the remaining 1.4 million looms failed to use their production capacity due to the high price of yarn.At present, at least 200 spinning mills in the country supply yarn to the local weavers and employ nearly 200,000 people directly and one million indirectly