The incidents of imported goods missing from the cargo warehouse at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA) have gone up alarmingly, causing serious concern among the importers, officials said.
Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) found that more than 4,069 imported goods worth approximately Tk 8.0 billion disappeared over the last nine month until September.
The government was also deprived of earning revenue to the tune of Tk 60 million because of the disappearance of the imported items.
Admitting the fact of missing goods, mostly industrial raw materials from the cargo godown, CIID Director General Moinul Khan told the FE that they had formed a five-member committee of customs officials to find out exact reasons behind the matter.
"Our intelligence cell has so far identified that more than 4,069 imported consignments worth approximately Tk 8.0 billion vanished from cargo godown of HSIA during the January-September period," he said.
Mr Khan termed airports and seaports as the lifeline of any economy and said missing of imported goods from the state warehouse is not a good signal for the businesses.
According to the CIID investigation team, a total of 39,293 imported goods are registered with the cargo godown but documents of 4,069 goods were found missing during the period mentioned above.
Seeking anonymity, an official linked with the investigation process, said they initially found that some unscrupulous officials both at Biman Bangladesh Airlines Limited (BBAL) and private agencies who deal with clearing products from the cargo warehouse are involved behind the scene.
"We cannot provide anything in detail right at the moment as the investigation process is still going on," he said adding that they have also been counting nature and cost of the vanished goods.
The country's importers have long been demanding for measures to protect their products from disappearing as it costs them high and puts their business at risk.
Talking about the issue, President of Exporters Association of Bangladesh (EAB) Abdus Salam Murshedy said there is a powerful syndicate prevailing at HSIA which shifts goods to somewhere else without cross-checking and paying import duty. He said they have placed complaints before the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) and BBAL to take necessary actions to prevent such unholy practices.
"But unfortunately we haven't yet received any visible response from the authorities concerned," the EAB president said adding that the garment owners are losing millions of taka every year due to disappearance and damage of goods at the airport godown.
A senior official of BBAL (cargo) said: "Not only Biman but also private agencies are responsible for this."
He said the authority received a good number of complaints from the importers about the 'unknown thefts'. "But we're yet to investigate those. We have a plan to conduct probe soon relating to the matter," he added.
When contacted, President of Bangladesh Freight Forwarders Association (BAFFA) Mahbubul Anam said the BBAL cannot avoid their responsibility through shifting the blame to others.
"Biman should take the responsibility and must come up with some sorts of rapid initiative to remove the pains of the business community," he added.
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