The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed the authorities concerned to take necessary steps to clear the stockpiled cars off the country's sea and land-ports, officials said.
They said the country's two seaports - Chittagong and Mongla - and Benapole land-port are struggling hard to accommodate a large number of cars and chassis of vehicles that have remain undelivered for long due to customs-related complexities and ongoing blockade-hartal.
These vehicles have been disrupting normal operations of the ports, they added.
The directive came following a high-level meeting, held at the PMO in last July in this regard. The then cabinet secretary had presided over the meeting.
The instruction has been sent to ministries of finance, commerce, shipping, law and justice, National Board of Revenue, Chittagong Port Authority, Mongla Port Authority, and Bangladesh Land Port Authority on Wednesday.
A total of 6,432 undelivered cars and chassis stored at Chittagong, Mongla and Benapole ports until June 24 last have been awaiting delivery, according reliable sources.
Some 1,036 cars have been lying undelivered at Chittagong Port and 3,246 in Mongla Port, while some 2,150 chassis in Benapole Land-port in Jessore, the data showed.
Many car importers have filed several writ petitions on tax-related issues, causing stockpile of these vehicles.
A PMO official said: "It is a serious problem. So we have asked the authorities concerned to take necessary actions to clear the backlog of vehicles from the ports."
"We are doing everything from our side to normalize the ports' operations as soon as possible by addressing the problem," he added.
A customs official said car importers could not take delivery of their vehicles, as they did not follow the existing import policy.
Besides, it is not possible to release a large number of imported cars at a time due to various reasons, including procedural complexities. As a result, some undelivered cars are sold every year through auction, he also said.
Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importer and Dealers Association president M Habibullah Don told the FE on Monday that more or less 1,000 cars have remained stockpiled in the ports due to ongoing non-stop blockade and recurrent spells of hartals. Besides, about 1,200 cars have been stagnant in the ports since 2009 due to customs-related complexities.
The car importers are counting about Tk 2.7 million demurrage everyday, as they cannot release the imported cars, he said.
"We could not release cars worth Tk 18.60 billion during the countrywide 62-day non-stop blockade coupled with hartal. As a result, the government also incurred loss of Tk 6.50 billion in duties and taxes," he added.
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