Preparation is underway in cooperation with international agencies to introduce National Single Window (NSW) which will ease export-import trade and transit and curb corruption.
The revenue-board chief said building up the network for this facility for simplified trade necessitates coordinated efforts of the relevant departments and ministries.
It would be difficult to implement NSW without effective coordination among the National Board of Revenue (NBR), ministries of finance and planning, commerce, industries, food and agriculture and relevant departments, the NBR chairman, Md Nojibur Rahman, told a preparatory national workshop in Sylhet Monday.
The NBR and the World Customs Organization (WCO) have jointly organized the four-day national capacity-building workshop at Sri Mongol to discuss ways of implementation of the NSW.
NSW is meant for easing the process of export-import trade and expand transit facility. All of the departments relevant to export and import will come under an integrated IT network.
"Willingness of the business community is necessary to implement such programme. Efforts must be taken to minimize risk through devising effective strategies," the NBR chair said.
State Minister for Finance and Planning MA Mannan said all relevant departments of the government will come under a single umbrella after implementation of the NSW programme.
Customs (modernization) member Khondaker Aminur Rahman, customs policy member Lutfor Rahman, customs (modernisation) first secretary Ehteshamul Huq and WCO expert Rajendra Meena also spoke at the workshop.
Customs modernisation member Khondaker Aminur Rahman said the government had received a commitment for a substantial amount of funds from development partners to implement the NSW.
The project is at the final stage of approval from the government, he told the meet.
However, before commencement of the project, it is an imperative that the key people are familiar with the terminologies, activities and goals of the project, he added.
NSW allows parties involved in trade and transport to lodge standardised information and documents with a single entry point to fulfil all import-export-and transit-related regulatory requirements. If information is electronic, then individual data elements should only be submitted once.
As it is a complicated mechanism, most of the developed countries also struggled to implement an efficient and useful NSW, Mr Rahman said.
"Our prime target is to build an efficient one which, on the one hand, will serve the interest of our business community and, on the other, will ensure compliance with the laws and regulations," he said.
Bangladesh submitted its WTO TFA (World Trade Organization Trade Facilitation Agreement) instrument of ratification in September 2016 with which it commits to implementing 37 measures of facilitating legitimate trade.
National Single Window is under Article 10.4 which states: 'members shall endeavour to establish single window.'
"Unlike many other measures, this is not mandatory, although a highly recommended one," Mohammad Ehteshamul Hoque said.
In the modern customs administration, SW is actually virtual or electronic single window where individual data elements are only submitted once.
Once NSW implemented, the tax-revenue collection will increase along with enhancement of compliance with rules and improvement of efficiency in resource allocation. It would help keep better trade statistics, he said.
Traders will be able to expedite release of goods from customs ports and experience a more transparent and predictable process and less bureaucracy, he added.
Productivity of customs will improve through the upgraded infrastructure, and a more structured and controlled working environment and enhanced professionalism will be achieved, Mr Hoque told the meet.
There will be fewer opportunities for physical inspection and corruption will be reduced significantly after implementation of NSW, he added.
Experts from India and Finland are conducting the workshop, being attended by representatives from the ministries of agriculture, food, and civil aviation and tourism, Bangladesh Bank, Atomic Energy Division, Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institution (BSTI) and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA).
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