Garment sector was recently disturbed by workers protest on pay hike and other benefits.
Therefore, Government has decided to increase pay scale of the workers and consequently, cost of production will go up.
To set off these costs, country's garment manufacturers and buying houses have decided to increase prices of garment products by 10-20 percent and informed their foreign retailers to be ready for this hike.
This increase in prices of garment products will not affect competitiveness or exports, informed Bangladesh Garments Buying Association (BGBA) Vice President Iftekhar Hossain.
Through this price rise, country's garment sector will get additional $1 billion in current fiscal year.
Garment sector accounts for almost 80 percent of country's export earnings.
To fix wage of garment workers, Government has formed a wage board in June this year.
Garment manufacturers want to give wage at Tk1,300 from current Tk950 but labour representatives demand Tk4,500.
If labour representatives agree to accept what garment owners offer, it will cost an additional Tk180 million per month in wages, but if garment owners agree to pay as per workers demand, cost will jump to Tk1.93 billion.
On the other hand, pay rise of semi-skilled and un-skilled workers is yet to be finalized, informed Iftekhar Hossain, Vice President of Bangladesh Garments Buying Association (BGBA).
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