Bond licence of 2 ICDs cancelled
Our Correspondent | Sunday, 3 August 2008
CHITTAGONG, Aug 2: The Chittagong Customs House (CCH) cancelled bond licence of two Inland Container Depots (ICDs) as the concerned ICDs failed to comply with the specified terms and conditions set for obtaining a licence, CCH sources said.
The penalised ICDs included Chittagong Container Transportation Company (Unit-2), privately installed at XY Shed of the Chittagong Port in the Halishahar area, and Iqbal Depot at Khalurghat area in the city.
A total of 13 organisations were provided with licence in Chittagong. Using the licence, some of those got involved in handling export or import items while others used to handle both export and import goods. These ICDs, time and again, were asked to follow the terms and conditions set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
According to customs sources, in reality no ICDs follow the specific terms and conditions. The CCH and the joint forces representatives jointly visited all the ICDs in May last and then they were informed of different problems. Later, the customs officials sat with the ICD operations in June and asked them to make certain mandatory terms effective under any circumstances.
It was learnt that each ICD needed to own 15 bighas of land, to be equipped with boundary of specific height, to have shed and weightment, scale for unstuffing of goods, adequate drainage system at the bonded area, security tower, adequate number of mobile cranes, fork lifts, prime movers and trailers, protected office rooms for the Customs officials and installation of a scanner machine.
But the concerned two ICDs failed to comply with the terms and conditions set for the licence, the sources added.
The penalised ICDs included Chittagong Container Transportation Company (Unit-2), privately installed at XY Shed of the Chittagong Port in the Halishahar area, and Iqbal Depot at Khalurghat area in the city.
A total of 13 organisations were provided with licence in Chittagong. Using the licence, some of those got involved in handling export or import items while others used to handle both export and import goods. These ICDs, time and again, were asked to follow the terms and conditions set by the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
According to customs sources, in reality no ICDs follow the specific terms and conditions. The CCH and the joint forces representatives jointly visited all the ICDs in May last and then they were informed of different problems. Later, the customs officials sat with the ICD operations in June and asked them to make certain mandatory terms effective under any circumstances.
It was learnt that each ICD needed to own 15 bighas of land, to be equipped with boundary of specific height, to have shed and weightment, scale for unstuffing of goods, adequate drainage system at the bonded area, security tower, adequate number of mobile cranes, fork lifts, prime movers and trailers, protected office rooms for the Customs officials and installation of a scanner machine.
But the concerned two ICDs failed to comply with the terms and conditions set for the licence, the sources added.