Govt to sell Nassa Group property to clear workers’ dues: adviser

The government has decided to sell properties owned by Nassa Group to clear outstanding wages and service benefits owed to its workers, according to a press release from the labour and employment ministry yesterday.

This is subject to court orders, said Labour and Employment Adviser M Sakhawat Hussain at the 15th meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on the review of labour and business conditions of industrial units in Beximco Industrial Park, held at the Secretariat in Dhaka.

The meeting was attended by the secretary of the Ministry of Labour and Employment, a deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, the additional inspector general of the Industrial Area Police, senior officials from several ministries and divisions, Nassa Group administrators, and representatives of various commercial banks.

He said the move would be carried out in line with directives from the court to ensure payment of legally determined arrears to affected workers, according to a press release.

According to the adviser, Nassa Group has already paid Tk 76 crore to its workers by selling company shares through a court-appointed administrator.

In addition, the group has made down payments to eight banks following instructions from the Bangladesh Bank. Down payments to the remaining 15 banks and the clearing of the remaining arrears of workers will be made by selling some assets of Nassa Group through open and competitive processes, in accordance with court instructions.

The group, which employed more than 30,000 workers in its textile and garment operations and also has interests in banking and real estate, fell into trouble after its chairman, Nazrul Islam Mazumder, was arrested in October 2024 in connection with a murder case linked to the July uprising.

Media reports indicate that the group’s operations have remained largely paralysed since the change of regime in August 2024, with factories shut and unpaid bank loans amounting to several thousand crore taka.

An earlier investigation by the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit alleged his involvement in trade-based money laundering worth about Tk 16,000 crore, including Tk 4,717 crore reportedly siphoned from EXIM Bank through 18 shell companies during his tenure as chairman of the bank from 2007 to August 2024.