Industries Minister Khandakar Abdul Muktadir on Thursday told Parliament that a total of 31 state-owned industrial enterprises under the Industries Ministry are currently operating at loss.

“Five state-owned enterprises of Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC), 14 of Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation (BSFIC) and 12 of Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) under the Ministry of Industries are operating at a loss," he said.

The Minister said this in his scripted answer to a question from treasury bench lawmaker SM Jahangir Hossain (Dhaka-18) during the question-and answer session.

Earlier, the parliamentary session resumed at 3:30pm with Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad in the chair.

Abdul Muktadir said the government provides subsidies for covering the trade gap—the difference between production cost and selling price—on fertilisers such as urea, TSP and DAP produced by factories under BCIC.

However, he said no subsidies are provided to the loss-making enterprises under BSFIC, though the government offers loans as operating capital support.

Similarly, no subsidies are given to the loss-incurring industries under BSEC, he added.

The government has plans to reduce the losses, the minister added.

He said the government has taken initiatives to modernise sugar mills under BSFIC, increase sugarcane production and sugar recovery rates, rationalise manpower and establish agro-based industries and distillery plants.

He further said a project is underway to convert the production process of Chhatak Cement Company Ltd under BCIC from wet process to dry process.

Besides, initiatives have been taken to restart closed factories and establish energy-efficient, environment-friendly and profitable industries to produce import-substitute products using modern technologies.

The minister said efforts are ongoing to modernise BSEC industries and make them environmentally-friendly as well as improve their marketing systems.