BUSINESS leaders on Wednesday suggested imposition of transit fees and service charges on the Indian vessels plying through Bangladesh and introduction of multimodal transport facility under the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between the two countries. This is a sensitive issue and their recommendations came at a right time on Wednesday in a seminar on Bangladesh-India PIWTT: Challenges and Opportunities. They have also urged both the sides to make the Protocol effective by removing the customs and procedural constraints to boost bilateral and transit trade through proper connectivity.
They also laid emphasis to keep the routes navigable through continuous dredging, introducing cargo container and signing coastal shipping agreement to bolster bilateral trade through waterways. The countries should shift their mode of transportation to waterways from the saturated roadways to reduce cost of business. Trade professionals attending the seminar equally share the views of the leaders of the business community and ask the government to work on the strategic issue.
The event organized by Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and the Indian High Commission in Dhaka at the Chamber body’s auditorium in the capital unanimously favours collecting transit fees and other charges justifying it saying everything has a cost of delivery. MCCI president Syed Nasim Manzur said that the fees and service charges should be set considering returns on investment, benefits to be derived from diversion of traffic, the direct and indirect benefits to be accrued to Bangladesh’s transport business and associated commercial activities.
Transit trade between the two countries did not increase despite huge potential due to poor navigational quality in river routes, absence of night navigational facilities, complex customs procedures, absence of container service and lack of loading and unloading facilities at ports. So both the governments should give emphasis on improving water transportation as movement of transit cargoes by road would be extremely difficult in future as the roads have already become saturated. The payment of Tk 10 crore as annual transit fees by India currently is not enough, they said.
The countries should not just rely on roads and rivers, railways and coastal sea lane may also provide effective methods of transportation and its possibility should be looked into specially for movement of heavy industrial goods and equipment. Depending on one or two systems in this multi-faceted world is not sound business. Redundancy must exist in this crucial sector to ensure the smooth movement of traffic and here the multimodal transport systems are a necessity.
Of course a fine line must exist to ensure that the fees are proportionate and not extortionate. Very high transit fees will have the effect of out-pricing the factors for the market and the total level of shipments will fall to negligible. On the other hand, very low fees may not justify the use of the roads and waterways, they must contribute to investment recovery. So experts believe that a balancing pricing of the use of the transport services may be the right answer to a complicated issue.
