NEWS report said as of transit fees the government is about to follow the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules instead of working along the recommendations of the national committee led by Tariff Commission on matters related to transit fees. Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Tuesday ruled out the recommendations terming them as ‘absurd’ at his secretariat office pointing out that the government would follow the WTO rules without making clear why the work of the national committee is not acceptable to it. Moreover what the WTO rules say is also not clear either to the people and it is incumbent upon the government now to remove the misgivings by giving a parallel comparison of the two to show which one serves the national interest better than the other. Many wonder why our government is shying to properly bargain with India on vital transit fee issues. The national committee was set up in 2010 after the government came under pressure from New Delhi to allow free movement of transport across Bangladesh without paying infrastructure cost or service charge. The committee submitted the report with proposed transit fees for different routes and categories of transports, but those were not made public by the government. So it appears that the government is not sharing the committee’s recommendations with the people in one way and also not making clear what the WTO system says all about it on the other. In fact, the nation is in the bush while debates is raging in the air without basic facts on the table. The committee chief, a bureaucrat very close to the ruling party; has been quoted by media that they have recommended transit fees from $4 to $50 per ton of goods depending on routes and transport category chosen by the users. Five sub-committees prepared the recommendations on transit routes, charge, volume of traffic, investment and nation’s benefits. But the Prime Minister’s economic adviser Mashiur Rahman instantly opposed any transit fee on that occasion in the light of the Tariff Commission’s recommendations saying such action may be treated as ‘uncivilized’at our time. Meanwhile, India is carrying food grains, construction materials and equipment for big plants to the northeast without paying infrastructure cost or service charge so far. Now our Finance Minister favours fixing the issue through WTO Dispute Settlement Panel as his reference shows as opposed to act on recommendations made by the national committee. It remains unclear why the government is not ready to recognize the prevalence of the national authorities over the external forces. The big question is why our government is not ready to bring pressure on Delhi to pay a reasonable cost for transit when Bangladesh’s investment on infrastructure runs too high and the formal trade imbalance runs over US$ 6.0 billion while informally it turns around $10 billion and more. It is our suggestion that with the signing of four nations road transport agreement, besides wider connectivity by water, air and railway, Bangladesh must honestly and effectively bargain to realize its infrastructure costs and benefits and more. There can’t be any surrender on it.
