NBR sources said a total of 9,561 writ petitions were filed against customs houses during the period. Against this backdrop, the NBR has initiated a move to dispose of the cases to recover the revenue.

As part of the move, Customs Department officials met deputy attorney generals and assistant attorney generals on Sunday in Dhaka.

Customs officials headed by NBR Chairman AFM Soliman Chowdhury met the law officials and discussed ways to expedite the legal processes to recover the revenues.

The meeting also discussed ways to efficiently handle writ petitions filed by the taxpayers.

According to the meeting sources, NBR will soon send a written report on pending cases and unrealised revenues to the office of the attorney general.

Customs Department officials said they cannot appear before courts in time to fight writ petitions, as there is a communication gap between the offices of NBR and attorney general. The petitioners easily get stay order because of such a gap, they added.

Earlier, he High Court constituted benches to dispose of revenue-related cases.

The two other revenue collection wings of NBR-- VAT and Income Tax -- will also meet the senior government law officials to expedite the processes to recover the revenues. The VAT and Income Tax wings are also facing the same problems.

According to the NBR statistics, the number of cases involving Tk1661 crore against the customs houses stood at 9561 during the period between 1993 and November 2006.