The findings of a recent study into the operational aspects of the Chittagong Port may not be startling, but these do, however, underline the urgency of redressing the long-standing problems of the port. The problems that the businesses generally face in cargo-handling and customs clearance are deep-rooted and systemic. All concerned, including the port management and the revenue officials, both at local and central levels, are in the know of the malfeasance in the operation of the port.
The recent attempt to identify the problems in depth and delineate their nature and extent in greater details is commendable. Sponsored by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and carried out by the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), the study was titled, the Bangladesh Time Release Study (TRS). It has identified some general problems afresh that are largely responsible for lengthy clearance procedures at the Chittagong port. Such problems include port congestion, complex and redundant or overlapping customs procedures and non-transparent administrative requirements and slow information processing due to limited automation at all levels of operations of the CPA and the customs.
All such factors force the port-users to go through a lot of hassles. These also compel them to spend additional amounts of money in getting their import consignments released or export goods shipped. The study has noted that clearance of an import cargo, on an average, takes more than 11 days while that in the case of shipment of an export cargo, it takes nearly five days.
Trade-related transaction costs, including freight charges and other logistical expenses, play a very important part in external trade. If an importer is required to pay high costs on his or her imported merchandise, he or she would pass on the costs to the consumers both at home and abroad. The consumers at home might have no option but to use or consume the imported goods at higher costs. But the situation is altogether different in the case of international buyers who would immediately find alternative sources if they find Bangladesh goods are relatively expensive. The governments of some developed countries might be sympathetic to the cause of Bangladesh, a low-income developing country. But they cannot dictate their businesses to procure goods from Bangladesh. The international buyers would automatically buy goods from this country, if they are assured of getting supplies of quality goods at competitive price.
In this context, the TRS has laid greater emphasis on streamlining the customs clearance procedure on an urgent basis by doing away with unnecessary delays that are caused by redundant, at times of repetitive or overlapping nature, actions by the customs, port and relevant other government officials, shipping and clearing and forwarding agents. The study has suggested introduction of a fully automated electronic declaration system, incorporating inputs directly from traders, automated risk assessment and client segmentation, to straighten out the problems. Automation of the entire customs and CPA operations is the key to resolving the problems that are encountered by the port-users. Allegations have it that some unscrupulous sections of customs and port officials in particular have subtly been delaying the automation move since the same would reduce their scope to realise 'speed money' from the port users. Now that the NBR has got the message through its own study, it must take remedial measures sooner rather than latter in order to make the clearance procedure at the Chittagong port easy, straight-forward and least expensive for the country's businesses.
