Description
The management of six sick private sector Jute manufacturing companies was taken over by the Central Government under Clause (a) of sub-section (1) of Section 18 AA of the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1956 and thereafter the ownership of these companies was vested on the Central Government through enabling legislation of these, the National Jute Mill was nationalized under the National Company Limited (Acquisition and transfer of Undertakings) Act, 1980. The remaining five companies were nationalized under the Jute Companies (Nationalization) Act, 1980. The ownership of these nationalized companies was vested on NJMC Ltd, a company newly created specifically for this purpose on 3rd June 1980, w.e.f. 10th June, 1980 in case of National Jute Mill and w.e.f. 21st December, 1980 in case of the remaining five mills. NJMC Ltd has one subsidiary, namely, Birds Jute & Exports limited (BJEL) in which it holds 59 percent equity shares. NJMC Ltd could not revive these sick mills and was itself reffered to the Board for Industrial & Financial Reconstruction (BIFR) and declared a sick company in 1993. A draft plan for revival of NJMC Ltd was approved by the Cabinet on 19th March 2010 at a total cost of 1417.53 crores, which was enhanced to Rs. 1562.98 crores by the Cabinet in its meeting held on 25th November, 2010. BIFR approved the revival plan on 5th January, 2011 which essentially consisted of (a) closure of three mills, namely, National, Union and Alexandra; (b) offering VRS to all the employees; and (c) running of the remaining three mills. During the financial year 2018-19 the Union Cabinet has approved the closure of the Corporation on 10th October, 2018 and a letter in this regard was forwarded to us vide letter File No.11/18/2014-Jute (Vol III) dated 31st October, 2018, which is in process.