A government SRO stipulating the freight fee is now the only instrument awaited to kick-start transhipment of Indian goods through Bangladesh's Ashuganj port anytime soon, officials said.
Responding to India's repeated call for starting procedures of transhipment of its goods through the route, the ministry of shipping (MoS) has requested all concerned to take necessary preparation for starting the inter-country transportation, they said.
The MoS late last month issued a notification asking the Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges, the National Board of Revenue (NBR), and the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) to take steps for colleting transit fee so that the transhipment could be started immediately.
"The transhipment of Indian goods will start immediately after the NBR publishes a statutory regulatory order (SRO) to this effect," MoS additional secretary Rafiqul Islam told the FE Tuesday.
"We have already asked the NBR, the road transport ministry and BIWTA to take preparation. NBR probably needs the vetting of the SRO before issuing," he said.
Prime Minister's economic adviser Dr. Mashiur Rahman in a letter last week requested shipping minister Shajahan Khan to ask the NBR to issue an SRO to this effect immediately, sources said.
He also requested fixing an interim transit fee for Indian goods-laden vehicles for using Ashuganj-Agartala road before the BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal) road-transport fee takes effect.
According to the last Indo-Bangla shipping secretary-level meeting held in New Delhi in November, the transit fee per tonne will be Tk 192.22 in total.
The NBR will collect Tk 130 per tonne as customs-related charges, the ministry of road transport and bridges will collect Tk 52.22 per tonne, and the BIWTA will take Tk 10 a tonne as supervision charge.
Apart from using Bangladesh's waterways, Indian vehicles carrying cargoes will have to go some 39 kilometres by road through Bangladesh territory--from Ashuganj to Akhawra--- to reach their destinations in north-eastern states from Kolkata.
India is eager to carry goods through Ashuganj river port to feed its seven-sister states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
Indian vehicles need to travel 1,650 kilometres to transport goods from Kolkata to Agartala through Guwahati in the landlocked north. They will have to cross only 350 kilometres if they take a cross-border trip through Bangladesh's Ashuganj port.
Last year's renewal of the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade (PIWTT), during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, paved the way for both the countries to carry goods to their own states or third countries using each other's territories.
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