Manual clearance system and repetition of checking procedures are causing unusual delay in clearance of goods at the county's largest land port, Benapole, a study revealed.
In the study, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has found both import and export cargoes facing hindrances to smooth trade with neighbouring India.
The study titled 'Bangladesh Time Release Study' (TRS) was conducted by the Benapole Customs House under the NBR with the support of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
Org-Quest Research Limited (OrQuest), a Bangladeshi research company, was hired by the IFC to assist in conducting the TRS.
The TRS reviewed response of 226 questionnaires of exporters and 297 of importers from April 16 to May 12, 2014 at Benapole port.
The NBR finalised the study report last month and would unveil its findings shortly.
Earlier, the Chittagong Customs House (CCH) conducted similar types of TRS to assess bottlenecks and total time of export and import through the largest seaport of the country.
The Benapole study has found that on an average, all types of import cargoes took nearly seven days for release through normal procedures.
Export cargoes took average time of more than four days for release.
"This time needs to be reduced in order to facilitate legitimate trade and meet the objectives outlined in the NBR's Strategic Plan," the TRS findings said.
The study held responsible the existing manual system and repetitive process for delayed clearance of goods and customs release. It also found undue influences by other stakeholders in the process.
"Procedures and practices should be reviewed to remove delays, duplication and unnecessary actions by the customs, other government agencies, the port authority, and clearing and forwarding agents," the TRS said.
The study recommended a fully electronic declaration and risk management system to ease the release procedures for the low-risk traders, who are less vulnerable to tax evasion.
The TRS suggested the NBR to review some procedures within six months to one year to streamline the system.
It has framed short, medium and long-term implementation plans for NBR.
The TRS suggested replacement of 100 per cent physical checking of import declarations by system-generated random quality control provisions on lodgement or receipt of declaration, reduction of repetitive handling of documents by third parties other than customs, facilitating low-risk trade by introducing a 'pilot programme' with a selected number of highly compliant companies.
It also underscored the need for introducing 'Customs Post Clearance Audit' function, centralisation of declaration, risk assessment and determining client segmentation in a centralised office for transparency.
The TRS suggested NBR to improve customs and other agencies' controls at Benapole port by the introduction of commonly agreed risk analysis and sampling techniques.
"It can be conducted through improved collaboration among all agencies to better identify those declarations that require detailed examination to avoid overlap and waste of time," the study said.
It suggested implementation of a pilot programme to allow Indian trucks to proceed under bond to deliver specific products such as perishable goods and manufacturing parts to the importers' premises.
Other recommendations include creating an inter-departmental coordinated border management committee, streamlining cargo clearance, permit management, concurrent cargo examinations, implementing co-ordinated border management and increasing staffs at the port to the sanctioned level.
The TRS recommended the NBR to continue to hold dialogue with the business community and jointly discuss improvement and promotion of procedures.
It suggested introduction of an authorised trader scheme to allow traders to meet certain criteria to benefit from simplified procedures such as direct release, prior release, simplified declaration, deferred payment etc.
"These 'pilots' could be implemented within the current system without necessarily having to wait for full automation and would deliver tangible and immediate benefits to trade," it said.
The TRS is one of the World Customs Organisation's (WCO) most important trade facilitation instruments, based on similar initiatives in the US and Japan where it was developed. It is a unique tool and method for measuring the actual performance of the customs activities as they are directly related to trade facilitation at the border.
The TRS of Chittagong (the largest seaport) and Benapole (the largest land port) are also a mandatory conditionality for the tranche 2 of the Asian Development Bank-financed South Asia Social and Economic Cooperation (SASEC) loan programme.
Benapole is the second largest customs house in Bangladesh. Almost 500 loaded Indian trucks enter Bangladesh daily through the Benapole border and about 250 bills of entry per day are submitted for the clearance of those goods.
Around 2,500 passengers travel through this international check-post every day.
Manual clearance, repetitive checking cause unusual delay
Doulot Akter Mala | Published: August 17, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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