All but one of the 15 government sugar mills in the country are currently running at a loss. The accumulated debt of these sugar mills is about BDT. 6 thousand crores. But sugar mill workers and experts say government policies and management are mainly responsible for the losses. With some modernization, the sugar mills can become a significant source of export income for the country. Government sugar mills are currently short of a 4,500 workforce. There is no initiative to replace the old technology with modern equipment and plant sugarcane, which has more sugar. Even sugar mills have the potential to earn thousands of crores by making hand sanitizers or expensive drinks from sugarcane by-products or by-products. But there is no effective measure in that regard. (Daily Deshrupantor, March 30, 2022)

Comment:
Bangladesh has the potential to be self-reliant in the production of high-quality sugar. But the puppet Hasina government has deliberately kept the management of the mills inefficient and the industry vastly dependent on imports with its weak policies and mismanagement only to justify the IMF prescription of privatization. All the country’s sugar mills were commissioned 50-70 years ago and their economic lifetime has expired and their production capacity have also declined. This anti-people secular government can spend billions of dollars on many megaprojects, many of which are viewed by experts as unnecessary, but they cannot spend a few tens of millions to make Bangladesh’s sugar industry along with its labor force self-reliant. Although modernization of the mills should be a top priority, the government did not take any initiatives to modernize the mills. Rather, the government incentivized private corporates to import unrefined sugar. By having government incentives, the private corporates sell sugar at a lower price than the state-owned mills, adversely affecting the competitiveness of the state-owned sugar mills. As a result, the country is becoming more dependent on sugar imports. Additionally, state-owned sugar mills can seldom pay the dues of sugarcane farmers on time due to a lack of funds and unfavorable government policies. So, farmers are losing interest in harvesting sugarcane, and the supply of sugarcane is decreasing day by day. In this context, private corporates have the opportunity to manipulate the market through hoarding, artificial crisis, and over-pricing with the policy support from the political elites. Capitalist elites loot the general mass through this process, and the Capitalist government played the role of facilitator of this crime of the Capitalist elites. As in the Capitalist system, capital is the thing that influences the government decision significantly.

To get rid of the systematic anarchy of the Capitalist system and the interference of the neocolonial West, we need a just political system under the Khilafah Rashidah (rightly-guided Caliphate) on the method of Prophethood that does not decide based on the interest of foreign powers and specific class of the society and intends to ensure the well-being of the community at large. The Khilafah will modernize the existing mills and reorganize the entire sugar ecosystem under the direct supervision of the state, and would not let this sector be dependent on the other hostile states. The sugar industry will be developed as part of Khilafah State’s massive industrialization policies to develop light and heavy industry infrastructure including the agrarian industry.

The job creation in the sugar industry will naturally increase consumption and people will be able to have greater amounts of disposable income as well. Finally, the Khilafah by freeing our agricultural sector from all foreign dependences, will implement the policies of food self-sufficiency, and move towards building a self-reliant and powerful State. The Ummah should immediately abandon the Western-backed corrupt Capitalist system and replace that with the promised Khilafah Rashidah to witness real industrial advancement and development. Allah (swt) says,

(فَإِمَّا يَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ مِنِّي هُدًى فَمَنِ اتَّبَعَ هُدَايَ فَلَا يَضِلُّ وَلَا يَشْقَى)

“So there will surely come to you guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, he shall not go astray nor be unhappy” [Surah Ta-Ha: 123].

Mohammad Shiraz
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Bangladesh