The customs authority has taken a move to maintain a common register on detected anomalies to sort out risk factors of import and export products.
Central Risk Management Unit (CRMU) of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) instructed all the customs houses and land customs stations to compile their monthly data on different customs-related irregularities.
Anomalies, started from customs shipment to case disposals, will have to be furnished in a common prescribed format to CRMU. The customs houses will send the data every month.
Earlier, different customs houses used to maintain anomaly register in their respective formats.
Officials said CRMU will analyse the trend of customs-related irregularities to find out the risk factors that may cause evasion of customs duty.
After compilation of data, the unit will be able to suspect what types of consignments are prone to customs duty dodging.
Importers and exporters will be able to expedite release of their goods from the customs points, if they are under less risky or safe categories, they also said.
Initially, CRMU will maintain the data manually until installation of an automated system for risk management.
A senior official of NBR said the risk management unit has recently started functioning after its reconstitution.
"It is yet to establish a separate office to work with necessary logistics," he said.
As per instruction of the unit, the customs houses will have to keep record of 26 types of anomalies, including wrong HS code in the bill of entry, misdeclaration, wrong CPC, violation of Import Policy Order etc.
Industry insiders said irregularities in customs stations increased significantly, causing poor growth of 3.72 per cent, in Customs Wing's revenue collection in the current fiscal year (FY), 2018-19.
According to NBR data, customs revenue collection declined significantly in the July-December period of the current FY.
The wing faced a shortfall amounting to around Tk 97.51 billion in the first half of the FY against its target for the period.
However, officials said decline in import of revenue-generating products is responsible for the sluggish trend in customs revenue collection.
Until November, import of consumer items dropped by 30.58 per cent and capital machinery by 5.18 per cent.
However, import of petroleum products, industrial raw materials and intermediate goods increased significantly.
