Photo : Collected
The Chattogram Custom House, which typically earns a revenue of Tk 200 crore per day, was brought to a standstill during the countrywide transport shutdown caused by the quota reform movement. A total of 20,000 import-export challans could not be registered as the server was not functioning, even though the goods had arrived at the port. This resulted in a loss of about Tk 2,000 crore over ten days of chaos.
Due to the prolonged curfew, export containers were unable to reach the depot. Normally, an average of 4,000 export containers would arrive at the depot each day, but this number dropped to zero. During the movement, no new export containers were cleared at any of the 19 depots.
President of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry Mahbubul Alam told the Daily Messenger “The main seaport and the highest revenue earning custom house had never faced such a crisis before. If this problem is not resolved quickly, the traders will face irreparable losses.”
However, the importers did not get out pass from Chattogram Custom House even after completing the customs clearance process. For this, even after loading the goods in the car, it could not be taken out from the port jetty. There are about 3000 such containers in the port. This includes consumer goods. Customs authorities are yet to give any decision regarding perishable goods through manual customs clearance.
Commissioner of Chattogram Customs, Mohammad Faizur Rahman said, due to lack of internet, import and export invoices cannot be registered on NBR's server. Couldn’t even give out-pass.
Chattogram Custom House Assistant Commissioner (Gate Branch) Pradeep Das stated that, apart from consumer goods, open goods such as fly ash, fertilizer, clinker, fish, fruits, onion, garlic, and ginger are allowed to be cleared manually. The process of direct redemption of industrial raw materials has also begun. Despite these efforts, the backlog cannot be reduced because, under normal circumstances, they issue gate passes for about 3,000 containers daily through the port's 10 gates without PCT (Pre-Clearance Transaction).
He said, “We were enlisted manually only 1 percent of the total product. So, 99 percent of the products are now lying in the port. This number is increasing every day. Because new ships are anchoring at the jetty every day. Products are also being unloaded from those ships. As it gets stuck at the delivery point, the mess is created.”
Meanwhile, 20,000 consignments could not be registered at customs. Goods arriving at Chattogram Port must be registered at the Custom House for customs clearance, requiring the submission of import-export documents. On average, about six to seven thousand such documents are added to the server daily. However, customs authorities were unable to add any documents to the server for three days, resulting in no taxation being processed. During this period, approximately 20,000 import-export documents became entangled in customs. Additionally, they were unable to clear the documents that had been taxed earlier.
Messenger/Fameema
