Three foreign development partners and a UN agency have begun assisting country's customs department in implementing its modernisation plan for removing hurdles that delay external trade clearance and thereby increase the cost of commodities.
Officials expressed the hope with the upgrading of the customs procedures it would be possible to ensure faster clearance of external trade consignments through maintaining national and international trading rules and compliance issues.
They said the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) have come up with their support for automation of the customs procedures.
Nine experts of the international agencies will be visiting Bangladesh in different phases to render their technical supports to the customs wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) to this end.
They would provide the supports in different areas for three months. The action period already started this month (August) and would continue till October.
To facilitate the work, the NBR customs wing has defined 11 areas of modernisation and formed committees for the respective areas, comprising expert customs officials.
Leaders of each of the committees would sit and visit customs offices with the international consultants to frame implementation strategies of the automation plan.
Allen Bruford, Brian O'shea and Robert Stuthers, international consultants of the IFC, would assist in implementation of Risk Management Standard Operating Procedures (SOP), World Trade Organisation (WTO) Free Trade Area (FTA), Time Release Study, assessment SOP, and streamlining warehousing provisions.
ADB consultants Dietmar Jost, Paul Collins and Denis Pantastico will support on Asycuda world rollout and need assessment, NI (non-intrusive) inspection SOP, Physical Inspection SOP, PCA (post clearance audit) SOP, Revised Kiyoto Convention (RKC) action plan and implantation of new customs law 2014, and preparation of drafts of its 56 types of regulations.
Local training on passenger and cargo profiling, advance ruling unit installation, PCA implementation, and fixation of working areas of AEO unit would be supported by Stephen Cox, Sergio Rivero and Glen Mackenzie Frazer (chief of party) of the USAID.
Two experts from UNODC would provide technical support on the setting up of port-control unit and its operation.
A senior customs official said the customs procedures would see a significant change within a year with the integrated initiative of modernisation. "Lengthy procedures in customs clearance would be minimised after automation of the wing," he hopes.
"The customs has started its journey towards paperless regime through upgrading its manual system," the official said about the digital run of the customs.
In two separate TRS, the customs wing has found unusual delays in consignment clearance at major ports of the country-Chittagong seaport and Benapole landport. The delay is largely due to manual system.
It has also identified some major bottlenecks which would be resolved with the implementation of the modernisation plan, the official said.
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