Commercial operation of DCH by mid-May likely

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Doulot Akter Mala
Commercial operation of Dhaka Customs House (DCH) is expected to start by first half of May as both the stakeholders - the chamber body and the customs agents association - have come to a consensus over operational modalities of automation.
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) and Dhaka Customs Agents Association (DCAA) recently agreed on some long standing issues over running the automated customs house.
The government inaugurated the automation project on 24 May 2009 designating the DCCI as the implementing authority.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) had set a time frame from 15 November 2009 to 31 December 2009 for starting commercial operation of DCH and Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kamalapur.
The starting of commercial operation has been delayed as there were some unresolved issues between the chamber body and the customs association.
Bashar, general secretary of DCAA, said: "We signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the DCCI last month to start the automation soon."
Customs agents are not against automated customs house, he said adding "We need assurance that customs agents' interest will not be ignored."
Abul Kasem Khan, president of DCCI, has expressed his dissatisfaction over the unusual delay in starting the project.
"We have invested a large amount of money in this project. The delay in starting commercial operation has also frustrated International Finance Corporation (IFC)," he told the FE.
DCCI has also raised the issue before finance minister recently, he said.
"We had talked with the IFC which is supporting the automation programme of NBR. IFC also expressed its unwillingness to support NBR further due to delay in starting the customs house automation work," he said.
Talking to the FE, a top official of DCH said both the customs agents and DCCI failed to come to a consensus over their share after automation.
"We have asked both the parties to resolve the matter and also given them deadline several times," he said.
The government planned to start the automation under public-private partnership (PPP) to materialise its vision of building digital Bangladesh, he added.