Transit without paying fees

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THE giving of a corridor to India by Bangladesh for sending its goods to its north eastern states, marked fulfilling of a long standing demand on the part of the former. This facility will come as a great boon for India. The Indian businesses and economy will save a great deal of resources from shorter transportation costs from finding this corridor through Bangladesh. India stands to make much gains in the short, medium and longer terms from gaining this access.
But what has Bangladesh got in return? Reports do otherwise indicate it seems. So, what is to become of all the talks about win-win relations to emerge from giving such concessions to India? Ever since the giving of this facility to India, the government of Bangladesh (GoB) has reportedly been pressing India to pay transit and customs fees as per national and international regulations. Under the present rate of shipment, Bangladesh would not get even more than one billion taka only as annual transshipment fees. But India is reported to be not willing to pay even such modest fees and is piling pressure on the GoB to waive the fees. In fact, they seem to have taken an unrelating stance on not paying the fees.
What then is the benefit to Bangladesh from giving this concession ? More important is the question why Bangladesh agreed to giving transit without first obtaining guarantees under specific terms that India would be paying for transshipment.
Badrul Haider
DOHS, Dhaka.