Manufacturers of terry towel cannot export about 6 lakh dozens of towels to US market as the government is dilly-dallying in allocation of quota in the last two months. With only 29 days remaining in December, the last calendar month of quota fulfilment, exporters say they may not be able to utilise the quota completely.

Bangladesh Terry Towel & Linen Manufacturer's and Exporters' Association alleged in the middle of the current fiscal after monitoring the export trend they found that export of product of the said categories ran slow because many small exporters had been failing to export and utilise quota despite many others had capacity.

About 30 percent of quota in the two categories remained unfulfilled in current fiscal, this year, said M Anisuzzaman, chairman of the association.

He said such situation occurred in the previous years and to utilize the quota the National Committee concerned on quota distribution recommended the ministry to allocate and distribute quota on `first come first serve' basis.

Anisuzzaman said, in September the committee again recommended the ministry to do the same but " due to inordinate delay in implementation of the decision by the authority, manufacturers and exporters are missing the opportunity and country is losing a good amount of earning".

"If the decision were implemented in time with subsequent allocations, many big manufacturers could utilise opportunities as they had capacity of production, letter of credits from buyers in hands and after shipping those they could ask for more L/Cs from their buyers," Anisuzzaman observed.

Anisuzzaman said in quota system there is an option for allocating a portion of quota as 'free quota' and this portion is usually traded among exporters to maximise their exports.

"Free quota allocation had also been delayed this year at least by one month," he added.

"We have now only 29 days left for the last quota year in this period. Even after hurrying productions and shipments, maximum quota will remain unutilised," Anisuzzaman lamented.

Anisuzzaman said manufacturers and exporters under his association usually earn about $90 million a year by exporting towels, linen and allied products and they have a target to export goods worth $100 million a year.

Earlier, Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) used to allocate quota to exporters. But EPB presently forwards the quota application to the Ministry of Commerce, which finally completes the quota distribution.

Exporters say involvement of two government organisations in the allocation brings nothing good rather it increases procedural delay. However, a high EPB official said the rest of this year's quota will be distributed on Saturday next.