The government is going to activate Ashuganj customs station shortly to facilitate transshipment of Indian cargos destined for that country's Tripura state.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will issue an order in a couple of days on reopening of the customs station. It is taking preparation to post customs officials at the station to handle the Indian goods.
The customs station has remained non-operative for years due to its poor capacity of handling containerised cargos and lack of initiative to boost trade using the port.
In May last, the government signed an agreement with India and declared the Ashuganj port as 'port of call', the fifth one in Bangladesh.
Revenue officials said the government needs to develop the infrastructure of the port to enhance capacity for handling Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC).
The ODC will be sent to Tripura via Ashuganj for Palatana power project. Currently, the Ashuganj port can handle only head-load cargos, not the containerised one.
The government has already taken initiatives to modernise Ashuganj port and develop its infrastructure upto Tripura border.
Officials said India has been requesting the government to speed up necessary infrastructure development work so that they could start ODC shipment by this year.
Revenue officials said it would be cost-effective for India to reach Tripura through the Ashuganj port.
The neighbouring country has been demanding Ashuganj as transshipment point since 1980 because Sherpur is not suitable for transshipment due to navigability problem.
The initiative has been taken to materialise the Prime Minister's commitment to provide transit and transshipment facilities to India, said a senior revenue board official.
The government has also waived the transit fee for Indian vessels that will ply through river routes of Bangladesh, he said.
The revenue board issued an order last Wednesday instructing all customs houses not to impose the transit fee on river routes for Indian vessels, he added.
The NBR has, however, slapped fees for transit and transshipment through rail and road at Tk 10,000 for bulk cargo and Tk 1,000 for per tonne of non-containerised product.
The official said the river transit fees have been withdrawn for India as per instruction of the government high-ups. The fees remained unchanged for Nepal and Bhutan for using transit facilities in Bangladesh.
For transit facilities, the authorities will follow the river protocol signed between Bangladesh and India in 1972, he said.
Currently, Indian vessels can use only river routes as transit. Road and rail transit facilities are not available now due to lack of necessary infrastructures.
Ashuganj customs station to be re-activated soon
FE Team | Published: November 20, 2010 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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