NBR to decide fate of PSI cos by Feb following complaints

FE Team | Published: October 28, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to decide the fate of Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) companies by next February as they are implicated in complaints of improperly doing their import-inspection jobs, reports UNB.
The previous BNP-led 4-party alliance government appointed four PSI companies -- Cotecna Inspection SA, SGS (Bangladesh) Limited, Bureau Veritas BIVAC (Bangladesh) Limited and Intertek Testing Limited -- in August 2005 for three years for certifying price, quality and quantity of imported goods.
Donor agencies and countries, specially the International Monetary Fund (IMF), had pushed for adopting the PSI system for import.
The NBR has already sent letters to different customs houses and chambers across the country to gather their experiences and recommendations about the PSI companies.
"We have sent letters to have their opinions whether we should continue to keep the PSI companies or not," NBR Member (Customs) Rashidul Ahsan Chowdhury told the news agency.
He said that the opinions would reach them very soon, and examining those the NBR would send their recommendations to the government.
"If we get the recommendations against the PSI companies from all stakeholders, why should we continue with the agreement?"
The NBR decided to take the recommendations from the stakeholders as it is getting allegations against the PSI companies about huge amounts of revenue loss caused to the exchequer.
The NBR recently found Cotecna Inspection SA involved in serious irregularities in import inspections, particularly with regard to Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) seized from high-profile corruption suspects.
It found that duties worth Tk 2.3 million were evaded on car imports alone due to alleged inspection irregularities.
Chittagong Customs has detected around 550 cases of irregularities in the import of industrial raw materials, chemicals and industrial goods by Cotecna.
NBR sources said that they are supervising PSI activities very closely as they got allegations against a PSI company.
Against the backdrop of suspected import-inspection scam, the government is likely to appoint an international audit firm to scrutinise the price quoting by the PSI companies by next month.
Three international audit firms, two from the USA and one from the EU countries, submitted tenders following tender call by the NBR.