A REPORT published in a national English daily said, the striking C&F agents at the ICD, Kamalapur refrained from submitting bills of entry and the facilitation of physical examination of import consignments. The strike continued for the fourth day, hampering delivery of import consignments and disposal of exportable items for shipment. Echoing the NBR officials, the report said that a significant revenue loss has occurred and more loss may occur if it continues. We are appalled with the high-handedness of both the C&F agents and the NBR officials who are in a row over the issue and are behaving indifferently causing economic loss to the country.
The strike started after the Customs House tightened measures for inspections of consignments in a move to stop tax dodging. Terming it as “dictatorial” rules, the agents demanded removal of Customs Commissioner and Joint Customs Commissioner. The C&F agents alleged, both the Commissioners established their dictatorship at the house and harassed agents by doing physical examination and re-examination of almost every imported consignment. Malpractices adopted and irregularities committed by both C&F agents and Custom officials and corruption like ‘under in voice’ and ‘over in voice’ in the total procedure of export and import, especially in the ports, the gateways of the export-import activities are but common knowledge. But what happened in ICD, Kamalapur sets an example of irresponsible behaviour in C&F business practices as the strikers are mostly involved in the ruling party politics, and they think themselves above the law and as such have the right to do anything at their whims. Even, the C&F agents went on strike bypassing the Dhaka Customs Agents Association (DCAA), the national platform for C&F agents. DCAA leaders were unaware of the agents’ intentions. To resolve the crisis, DCAA officials sat with the strikers but failed to find a solution.
However, denying the allegations by the striking C&F agents, NBR officials defended themselves saying, they followed the rules for examination, which was done for every commercial consignment. Insiders point fingers at some leaders of DCAA and some other agents linked with the party in power were behind the strike, as detection of duty-dodging by the Customs officials at ICD went against their interests.
The National Board of Revenue received Tk 1,292 crore in revenue in the July-May period of this fiscal from the ICD, which handles more than 120 containers a day. The revenue in fiscal 2012-13 was Tk 1,629 crore. Therefore, a significant portion of revenue is collected from the ICD. We call upon the concerned authority and the strikers to resolve the crisis for the better interests of export-import delivery. Country’s economy should be considered beyond politics and petty self-interest. We advise the government to ensure the business gateways remain free from its political musclemen and take immediate actions against those who make anarchy at ICDs in the name of politics.
