Some 1.0 tonnes (1,000 kilogram) of seized gold remain stuck in Dhaka Customs House (DCH) for procedural complexities to deposit in the central bank's vault.
The customs house could not deposit the gold that it temporarily seized as the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is not taking the responsibility as per its treasury rules.
The regulator allows deposit of seized gold on a temporary basis without evaluation of quality and quantity.
However, customs officials said they cannot deposit the precious metal without evaluation of its quality and quantity on security grounds.
DCH customs commissioner Md Moazzem Hossain said they do not have adequate facility to store this large amount of gold in the customs warehouse.
In case of any incidence, the customs will be held responsible for keeping the seized gold under its custody, he told the FE.
"We're planning to seal the gold under the supervision of senior customs officials and deposit to the BB vault. A committee has been formed to this end."
A huge amount of gold has remained stuck in the DCH for more than two years for differing opinions on the procedure of gold deposit, the official cited.
He said the volume of seized gold is increasing day by day, creating a trouble for the DCH.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) recently formed a committee to determine the process of depositing temporarily seized gold and propose amendments to the treasury rules.
The four-member committee comprising DCH commissioner and other customs officials will sit with BB officials on determining the process of depositing gold after assessment of quality and quantity until amendments.
It will draft a policy for the NBR to ensure security of customs godowns both digitally and manually.
The committee will also recommend amendments to the subsidiary rules drafted under the treasury rules.
Mr Hossain said customs houses deposit smuggled gold and other precious metals in two ways-permanently and temporarily.
Gold, confiscated in favour of the government following legal procedures and for which no one claims ownership, is deposited permanently to the central bank which acts as the government treasury.
Gold, having cases pending with court, is deposited on a temporary basis to the BB for safety.
Until November 2018, before the gold scam in BB, the central bank received the valuables after assessing quality and quantity, Mr Hossain said.
As per treasury rules, seized gold will enjoy the vault facility for security purpose, but the BB will not take the responsibility of its quality and quality unconditionally.
The DCH commissioner said there is a huge risk to deposit seized gold to the BB as nobody is receiving it after assessing quality and quality.
"We cannot make sure whether the customs official concerned deposited the gold packet properly," he said.
Mr Hossain said it would take a long time to amend the treasury rules, but by that time a huge amount of gold might be piled up in the customs house.
The DCH will sit with the NBR next week to propose a short-term way before amending the rules, he added.
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