Businesses to get easy, automated goods clearance benefits at ports

A new customs law in the making holds out a bunch of beneficial provisions for local traders along with easy and automated trade clearing from the ports, in line with government policy geared towards faster economic growth.
Planned to be placed in the upcoming parliament session next month, the draft new customs law incorporates provisions under which traders can expedite release of goods from ports upon giving prior declaration.
"The person in charge of a conveyance (vessel, aircraft, truck) will be required to submit an advance cargo declaration prior to arrival to Bangladesh," says the draft of the customs law.
Under the current law, the person in charge is required to submit the manifest only after arrival.
Presently, it takes pretty long time to release products from ports as customs officials have to assess risk of the items at the entry point of the country.
There would be preferential treatment of authorised traders who have good compliance records. The board will authorise the traders who would enjoy a certain and special simplified declaration and release procedures.
However, other traders will not be entitled to enjoy the benefit.
Waheeda Rahman Choudhury, first secretary for customs modernization of the National Board of Revenue (NBR), said there would be red, yellow, green and blue channels for businesspeople commensurate with their previous track record on compliance.
"The NBR will do risk-management profiling to find out the genuine importers," she said.
"Suspicious traders with bad track record will pass through red channel while yellow channel would be for the traders subject to only checking of documentation," she added.
And the green channel would greet traders with good track record.
Blue channel would be offered for those who maintain accounts in international standards following WCO rules, Ms Choudhury said.
Authorised Economic Operators would be selected from among the traders who would be entitled to use blue channel.
"There would be an advance ruling system where traders would import products from same suppliers. The NBR will give a ruling by fixing an HS code of the product with a fixed price for it for a certain period," the NBR official said.
Customs officials will not ask any question on value of the products at the time of assessment, she said.
The new law will also offer an accelerated customs processing and speedy release of perishables, goods imported by air express courier companies, and emergency disaster relief.
In the existing law, there is no clear provision on simplified declaration and clearance of such goods. Some selected products enjoy the speedy clearance under a Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO). There would be a provision of providing the NBR a legal basis to allow electronic customs transaction such as submission of a manifest, submission of a bill of entry and bill of export, claims for refund or drawback.
The current Customs Act 1969 provides for electronic submission of bills of entry and related documents only.
Under the new law, there will be a due date for payment of customs duties.   Payments made after that date would be subject to interest.  The current law contains no such provisions.
The new law is generally aligned to the terms and principles of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) Kyoto Convention, the international "blueprint" for a modern customs administration.  
Under the new law, any of draft new or amendment of law, rules or order have to be discussed with the stakeholders. Also, the NBR will have to hold regular consultation with stakeholders to bridge any gap.
As per provision of the new law, the board will establish enquiry points, within its available resources, to respond to stakeholders' questions and requests for information and forms.
There would be 'inward processing' for allowing foreign goods to be imported without payment of duty, with bank guarantee, for use in export-manufacturing operations.
Another one is 'outward processing' for allowing goods to be exported for repair and returned without payment of duty.
Third one is 'temporary importation' for allowing goods to be temporarily imported for specified purposes.  
These terms and conditions for use of these procedures are not fully defined in the current law.
The new law on the anvil has removed the provision of the much-talked-about pre-shipment inspection.  
The new customs law will replace the existing one framed way back in 1969.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) jointly organized a four-day workshop last week to familiarise officials concerned of customs, other relevant ministries and departments and private-sector stakeholders with its provisions and changes being brought.
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