Garment owners to sit with Ctg Customs for faster clearance of exports

Representatives from the BGMEA, garment industry owners and stakeholders will soon hold a meeting with the Chattogram Customs commissioner seeking a solution to the ongoing complications they are facing in the customs department with exporting ready-made garments.

"Meanwhile, some recommendations have been given by BGMEA. A meeting will be held soon at Chattogram Customs House with representatives of companies involved in garment exports, including BGMEA. Positive steps will be taken as per laws and regulations to resolve the issues related to garment export," Barrister Md Bodruzzaman Munshi, spokesperson of the Chattogram Customs House, told The Business Standard.

Garment industry owners want the cooperation of Chattogram Custom House to speed up cancellation of bill of entry and bill of export and correction of unintentional errors, simplifying export goods shipment shut-out process, execution of re-route process, excess duty weight in capital machinery taxation, in a bid to ensure timely shipment of exports.  

"We target a specific timeframe to ship (load onto the ship) products. Due to various complications at Customs, the shipment is being missed in many cases, which is discouraging for foreign buyers. Due to these problems, fears of losing customers are increasing," said Syed Nazrul Islam, first vice president of BGMEA.

"It is by no means desirable to put the garment export sector in jeopardy as a whole," he added.

According to BGMEA, the weight of the export consignment is determined by measuring the weight of the garment in its own weighing machine. Later, during the manual inspection of the export consignment by the Customs at the private inland container depots (ICDs), the weight of all the cartons is determined based on the weight of any one sized garment from the different-sized garments in the carton. 

However, in many cases, the weights are observed to be more or less the measurement of the weight specified in the document, halting shipment of the export goods within the stipulated time limit of the buyer. This results in the whole shipment having to be sent later by air or by discount.

Garment exporters also stressed the need for faster Customs clearance of shipments without hampering exports due to weight issues.

To solve the ongoing problems in the export of ready-made garments, it is necessary to simplify the process of canceling the bill of entry and quickly cancel the bill of export (shipping bill) on the basis of certification by the lien bank, said BGMEA.