The Ministry of Textiles (MoT) to blacklist companies for two years and will even face criminal proceeding to found supplying imported jute bags for government procurements. The warning followed reports of unscrupulous traders and organizations importing B-Twill sacking and cloth from Bangladesh or Nepal and using them in government procurements.

The Jute Commissioner said that even if a single jute bag being supplied to the government is found to be procured from abroad, action will be taken immediately against owners and directors of the company, an official statement said today.

The statement said that such supply of sackcloth procured from abroad or sacking manufactured from imported yarn/cloth are strictly prohibited as it violates the JPM Act, 1987.

Such trade not only leads to diversion of government subsidy in procurement of jute sacking and benefits unintended parties and also adversely affects domestic market consisting of lakhs of jute mill workers and cultivators.