Al Amin :
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to request the Bangladesh Bank (BB) to extend operational time of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system to expedite the assessment of imported goods.
Accelerating the NBR’s E-payment system, the revenue board held a meeting with the representatives of the central bank, schedule banks, port authorities, different chambers, C & F agents and importers on Thursday.
As per the decision of the meeting, the Customs Modernization and Project Management wing of the NBR will send a letter to the central bank very soon requesting the extension of the operational time, a NBR official said.
The existing operational time of the RTGS system is 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, but NBR wants two and half hours additional time to facilitate the importers.
Citing examples of neighbouring countries, they said the RTGS operational time in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka has already been extended to accelerate the international trade. So, it should be enhanced in Bangladesh, the official said.
Besides, the importers can’t release their goods on the public holidays due to the closer of the banks, despite the customs houses and stations remaining open round the week.
Resolving the problem, the NBR should popularize the E-Payment system through the Application Programming Interface (API) system of the Sonali Bank, the participants said.
Though the e-payment system was introduced in March 2017, the importers are unable to reap the benefits of it due to the lack of awareness among stakeholders, including customs and clearing agents of traders, NBR officials said.
They said that on analysing the situation, the revenue board had decided in principle to make the e-payment system mandatory in phases for all.
Initially, it will be made compulsory for payments of large amounts of duties and taxes and all kinds of payments will be gradually brought under the system by December 2021, they said.
Only some large importers are now using the online duty payment system.
The officials said that the NBR introduced the e-payment system to implement Article 7.2 of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade Facilitation Agreement.
The traders can make direct payments from their bank accounts through the RTGS of the BB, making the payment system easier and consequently facilitating speedy release of imported goods.
Currently, a total of 41 banks are connected to the e-payment system.
Unscrupulous traders and their customs and clearing agents may also evade taxes by taking advantage of the manual tax payment system through submitting forged challans or invoices, they said.
E-payment is safe, secure and faster and any amount can be paid from any RTGS compliant commercial bank, they said, adding that the central bank and Sonali Bank would ensure head-wise payment of duties and taxes according to bill of import.
