The government has drafted rules (industry registration) 2019 for the textile and clothing sector, aiming to ease the registration process and bring the industries under the sponsoring authority's regulation, officials said.
To get industries registered with the Department of Textile (DoT), the draft rules incorporated some 15 conditions including restriction on discharging industry wastes to nearby rivers, connecting canals and other common water bodies without treatment.
It also asked for mandatory setting up of effluent treatment plant and making it functional along with abiding by the law related to the environment.
The Ministry of Textiles and Jute (MoTJ) drafted the rules and published it at the official website of DoT on November 25.
The ministry also sought feedback on the draft from the stakeholders/ trade bodies concerned.
The DoT has convened a meeting next week with the stakeholders to get their opinion on the rules and make the service-receiving process easy, a department official said.
The move came in line with the government's measures to empower the DoT as the sponsoring authority to provide services to the country's textile and clothing sector by enacting Textile Law 2018, he said.
The law also brought the buying house owners under the department for the first time, officials said.
All textile and clothing industries including readymade garment, cotton and fabrics, and buying houses must be registered with the department for running their businesses in the country, they added.
Earlier in April last, the MoTJ for the first time asked all the buying houses operating in the country to get registered with the DoT to bring them under regulation, they noted.
Though the government initially fixed a timeframe for registration of the buying houses, a ministry official said, the time bar has recently been withdrawn.
According to the conditions of the draft rules, the factories have to have arrangement for preserving rainwater to reduce pressure on the underground water.
It also prohibited employment of child labour (below the age of 15 years).
Other conditions included establishment of day care centre and providing maternity leave with benefits to the female workers to ensure decent work environment.
The apparel and textile industries would have to fulfil a number of other requirements like environment and workplace related compliances to get registered with the DoT.
It said that the factories would have to provide all the up to date documents, and fire extinguishers would have to be installed properly.
In the draft, the ministry proposed registration fees for the factories based on the amount of investment.
Registration fees of Tk 5,000, Tk 10,000 and Tk 25,000 have been proposed for factories having investment of Tk 10-100 million, Tk 100-250 million and Tk 250- 500 million respectively.
A fee of Tk 50,000 has been proposed for the factories with investment of Tk 500 million to TK 1.0 billion and Tk 100,000 for the factories with investment of more than Tk 1.0 billion.
A DoT official said that there was a provision for the textile industries to get registered with DoT for long but the formulation of the rules would ensure regulation in all the subsectors including primary textile, readymade garment, allied textile, packaging and accessories manufacturers.
The entrepreneurs would have to submit application to the DoT with the documents of updated trade licence, income tax certificate, certificate of incorporation as limited company and bank solvency certificate, factory layout plan approved by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, fire licence and environmental clearance.
After filing application, the registrar would issue inspection order within three days and inspector would submit inspection report within 10 days, he said.
If the inspection reports prove eligibility, he said the registrar would give registration and the validity of the registration certificate would be three years.
