Exim tumbles as cargos pile up on Indo-Bangla border

Shah Alam Nur | Published: January 14, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Export-import trade through land ports has virtually halted for over a week now as long-haul road transport remained paralyzed due to the ongoing countrywide blockade, leaving thousands of loaded lorries stranded on both sides of the Bangladesh-India border, according to traders.
Scenes at seaports, especially at Chittagong Port, are no different, reports said, as the country's commercial lifeline largely remained cut-off.Â Â Â
Officials and businesses said hundreds of goods-laden trucks and covered vans had been waiting for one week on both sides of the Indo-Bangladesh border but could not move out as the country was passing through spells of strikes and countrywide blockade.
An anti-business atmosphere prevailing in and around the land ports also dealt a massive blow to government's revenue collection, which recorded a 92 per cent headlong fall in recent days.
Business-insiders said raw jute, jute goods, frozen foods, agri-products, woven garments, knitwear, leather and chemical products, textiles and textile articles, products of the chemical or allied industries, machinery and mechanical appliances are traded between Bangladesh and India through land routes.
According to statistics of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) the bilateral trade stood at $6.6 billion in 2013-14, with the turnover tipping the balance in Delhi's favour.
India exports commodities worth $6.1 billion and imports from Bangladesh items valued only 462 million dollars.
Â "Nearly 5,000 trucks and covered vans carry export and import consignments on the Bangladesh-India trading routes every day. But in last one week the haulage almost halted," said Abdul Motaleb, General Secretary of Bangladesh Covered Van-Truck Panyo Paribahan Malik Association.
He told the FE that, on both sides, more than 40,000 loaded covered vans have been in wait but couldn't move for blockade. Â
More than 130,000 trucks and covered vans move in the country for transporting goods, but the number in operation tumbled down by 95 per cent, he said about a veritable debacle.
And about 98 per cent of more than 0.2 million workers of trucks and vans are now almost jobless due to the countrywide blockade-enforced, amid stray incidents of violence, by the BNP-led 20-party alliance over the January 5, 2014 election issues.
Talking about the matter, President of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Kazi Akram Uddin Ahmed said countrywide blockade in and around the land ports came as a matter of serious pain to the exporters and importers.
Â "Bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India through land routes is being severely affected by the current political situation," he said.
The chief of the apex trade body noted that land ports are among the most important international trading spots but a number of Bangladeshi trucks loaded with goods could not pass through the bordering areas for this reason.
An official of Benapole Land Port said, "On average, the land port collects revenue to the tune of Tk 90-95 million a day in the form of export and import duties from businessmen. But, in recent times, we could manage to collect Tk 6-7 million on average a day."
He informed that a large number of vehicles carrying goods have been in a long wait on both sides of the port as the ongoing violence on highways triggered panic among exporters, importers and the transport operators about facing dire consequences of defiance.
Other officials at Bhomra Land Port said due to countrywide blockade export-import business was going on very slowly, result in government having been deprived of around Tk 6-7 million a day in lost revenue.
Â "If the situation further prolonged," he said, "the port authority could fail to collect even 35 per cent of the targeted revenue for the current fiscal year (2014-2015).
According to the statistics available with Bangladesh Land Port Authority (BLPA), business activities at the country's 16 land ports have been suspended for 9 days in a row in the current month--the starter of the new year whose advent was heralded with shutdowns in a return of the political standoff after a year of deceptive calm.
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