Customs houses to get rid of middlemen

The customs wing of the government's revenue board has decided to oust outsiders from all customs houses including those in Dhaka and Chittagong in a bid to ensure efficiency in the customs clearance procedures.
The customs department will recruit new officials to replace the outsiders, known as dalal or middlemen, within the shortest possible time.
In a recent meeting, the customs officials decided to take help of the law-enforcing agencies, if necessary, to get rid of the outsiders or middlemen at ports.
The move came following a report of the Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) on 'Challenges and the ways of good governance, automation of import-export process at Chittagong port and customs house'.
The meeting, chaired by National Board of Revenue (NBR) member Farid Uddin, found the TIB report short of presenting the real scenario due to lack of communication with the relevant authority.
In its report the TIB bribing continued unabated at the port and customs houses in Chittagong even after automation of their operation as exporters and importers were forced to pay Tk 4.75 million a day to have customs-related formalities done.
The study said a section of unscrupulous officials at the Chittagong Port and at its customs houses illegally hired about 60-70 people called 'Badi Alam' or 'Falto' to assist them in negotiating with clients on illegal transactions.
The customs wing found that the TIB report pointed out six major shortcomings, most of which were related to automation, apart from financial irregularities in the customs houses.
Lack of supporting staff forced the customs wing to allow outsiders in the customs house, but the hall room where major tax assessments take place was free from intervention of any outsiders, commissioners from Dhaka and Chitagong customs houses said in the meeting.
Talking to the FE on Sunday, Chittagong Customs House (CCH) Commissioner Masud Sadik said the customs house already got rid of outsiders as per instruction of the NBR.
"We have taken assistance of the law enforcing personnel to make the CCH free from outsiders," he said.
To manage the gap, the CCH recently moved to recruit about 200 officials to do customs-related work, he added.
In the meeting, the customs wing decided to introduce customs assessment through the ASYCUDA world system instead of manual physical checking, scrap the system of signature of customs officials on printed copies of bills of entry, establish connectivity with Bangladesh Bank (BB) and the port authority for introducing online payment and build capacity of customs officials by imparting adequate training.
The NBR has taken several moves to automate the customs house including drafting a new customs law in the light of the revised Kyoto convention, Time Release Study (TRS), to assess the state of customs clearance, risk-management, port clearance audit, introduction of Authorised Economic Operator (AEO).