ICD owners suffer losses with 38 goods directly delivered from port

Highlights:

• Chattogram Customs House extends delivery of ICD-bound imported goods until March 2023
• Unloading of ICD-bound goods allowed even without any container congestion at port, causing losses for ICD owners
• Over 50% of ICD-bound goods currently unloaded at port
• Fall in import-export trade and delivery of goods at port causing financial strain on struggling ICDs

In July 2018, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) decided to allow delivery of 38 imported products bound for inland container depots (ICDs) from the port yard as well to ensure a smooth supply of food during the Eid season.

Chattogram Customs House has been extending the facility for the last four years even during the times when there was no container congestion at the port, which caused losses for ICD owners.

Saying that their situation has worsened due to the recent slowdown in global trade, the ICD owners demanded that the 38 types of imported products specified for ICDs be delivered only from there and not from the port yard.

In Chattogram, there are 19 private inland container depots (ICD), also known as off-docks, which handle almost 95% of export goods for shipments and 38 types of import goods – including food items like rice, wheat, mustard seeds, chickpeas, pulse, scraps.

The ICDs work to help ease congestion at Chattogram port and facilitate the quick clearance of full container load (FCL) cargo by allowing unloading or delivery from areas outside the port.

According to Chattogram Customs House, the facility to take delivery of ICD-bound imported goods from the port is being extended every three months. In continuation of that, the customs authorities have extended the facility from 1 January 2023 to 31 March 2023.

A 29 December letter signed by Chattogram Customs House Joint Commissioner Tafsir Uddin Bhuyan said the deadline for allowing delivery of goods from the port along with ICDs has been extended in response to a letter from the Clearing and Forwarding (C&F) Agents Association.

The Bangladesh Inland Container Depots Association (Bicda) said according to the NBR's decision, 23% of goods imported through Chattogram port should be delivered from ICDs. However, due to the dual policy of the customs authority, over 50% of the ICD-bound goods are unloaded at Chattogram port.

Indignant over the customs authorities' recent decision, Bicda leaders said entrepreneurs had invested about Tk6,000 crore in 19 ICDs, where about 20,000 permanent and temporary workers are employed. Their business has already declined by about 25% due to the fall in imports and exports amid the global economic recession.

"Chattogram Customs House is repeatedly extending the facility without any discussion with the ICD owners. We are already struggling to run the business in the current situation. Such a decision by customs has thrown the ICD sector into uncertainty," Bicda President Nurul Qayyum Khan told TBS.

"The Commissioner of Chattogram Customs House had assured us of cancelling the facility in November this year but they have extended it again," he added.

In a recent letter to the Chattogram Customs House commissioner, Bicda said the volume of ICD-bound containers with 38 types of imported goods inside Chattogram port has dropped since July 2018. As such, it is not understandable why Chattogram Customs House continues to allow delivery of the said imported goods from the port despite the fact that the volume of ICD-bound containers at the port is minimal.

Secretary General of Chattogram C&F Agents Association Kazi Mahmud Imam Bilu told TBS that in some cases it takes time to carry containers from Chattogram port to ICDs for unloading. In this situation importers take delivery from the port instead of ICDs.

Despite repeated attempts, Chattogram Customs House Commissioner Mohammad Fyzur Rahman and Joint Commissioner Tafsir Uddin Bhuyan could not be reached over phone for comments regarding the matter.