NBR allows importers to get Kamalapur ICD-bound goods released at Pangaon

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) will allow importers for a period of three months to release their products through Pangoan port if the goods are bound to Kamalapur Inland Container Depot (ICD) from Chittagong port.

The decision was taken at a recent meeting to ease congestion at the Chittagong port, the country's largest seaport.

In an interim arrangement, importers will enjoy the facility until October 31 next under certain conditions.

In this connection, the NBR has issued a gazette notification, dated August 01, signed by Customs Member (policy and ICT) Syed Golam Kibria. After October 31, the circular will be considered invalid.

The importers will have to transport the containers from the Chittagong Port to Pangoan Port only through river routes, the circular said.

The NBR, Chittagong Port Authority and ICD took the decision in a recent meeting to resolve the transportation problem of imported goods from Chittagong to other places.

Talking to the FE, Customs Commissioner of the Kamalapur ICD Anwar Hossain said the decision was taken to expedite release of the stuck up goods from the Chittagong port that are bound to the Kamalapur ICD.

Higher volume of goods could be carried through ships from Chittagong to the ICD compared to that of the railways, he said.

The decision is also expected to help ease the congestion of containers in Chittagong port in the upcoming Eid-ul Azha, he said.

There will be an extended office of the Kamalpur ICD at Pangoan for customs assessment, he said.

Another customs official said that approximately some 2,000 ICD-bound containers remained stuck at the Chittagong port due to limited capacities of railway cargo.

The congestion at the Chittagong port was created after announcements of alert for Fani cyclone, shortage of railway cargos due to Eid-ul Fitr and other reasons, he said.

"The revenue board apprehended more congestion during Eid-ul Azha as cargo train would remain unavailable due to rush in passenger train," he said.

As per the gazette, ICD officials will conduct customs assessment of the products at the Pangoan inland container terminal.

For importing the Kamalapur ICD-bound products through Pangoan port, the importers or clearing and forwarding agents will have to give the list of import products to their respective shipping lines and request them to transport the products to Pangoan in river ways through ships.

A copy of the list of imported products will have to be submitted to the commissioners of the respective customs houses, the gazette said.

The Pangoan port authority will take necessary steps to arrange the facilities for customs assessment, inspection and clearance procedure for the imported products inside the terminal.

Importers will not be allowed to amend the Import Manifest or change status of the products. Pangoan ICD will ensure security of those imported products until releasing from the ports.

Kamalapur ICD will have to send a weekly report with details of the released products under this circular, the NBR said.

The government has built the Pangoan inland terminal at a cost of Tk 1.54 billion to ease the pressure of cargo movement on the Dhaka-Chittagong railway and highways. The terminal, jointly built by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Chittagong Port Authority (CPA), has a storage capacity of 3,500 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) of containers and handle 116,000 TEUs of containers annually.

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