Trade halts as Indian truckers on strike

Export and import through Hili land port remained suspended as the drivers and helpers of Indian trucks blocked the connecting road between India and Bangladesh in Hakimpur for indefinite period yesterday, demanding immediate offloading of imported rice which was stuck for duty complexities for more than a month.

The agitating Indian truckers said they will continue the blockade until a solution is found.

According to the importers, around 12,228 tonnes of rice was imported through the Hili land port between June 5 and 6 under the previous LC opened under two percent duty. Of them, 5,000 tonnes of rice got customs clearance while the remaining rice was barred by the customs when the finance minister, in his budget announcement on June 7, raised the duty to 28 percent.

The imported rice of 240 Indian trucks could not be offloaded due to the duty complexities.

Indian truckers block the link road with Bangladesh territory at Hili land port in Hakimpur upazila of Dinajpur yesterday demanding immediate offloading of the rice. Photo: Star

For that reason, around 440 Indian drivers and helpers got stranded in Bangladesh with their trucks, leading an inhuman life here for last one month.

The truckers blocked the road for an hour on Monday demanding unloading of the rice.

Later, they again blocked the road for three hours on Tuesday.

The agitating truckers gathered on the road again and blocked it yesterday morning for indefinite period demanding offloading of the rice immediately from their trucks or send back them home, said Bidyut Mohanta, a driver of an Indian truck.

Another trucker Rana Sarker said they want go back home leaving the trucks here in Bangladesh. “We shall come back here again to take back the trucks when the problem will be solved”, he said, adding that BGB and BSF are not allowing them to go back home.

Md Harun Ur Rashid, president of Importer and Exporters Group, said they agreed to send back the Indian truckers to their country, but their importers (Indian traders) are allowing them to return home without their trucks.

On the other hand, the importers filed a writ with the High Court on Sunday where the court issued a show cause notice asking the customs authority why the bar shall not be declared illegal. The court also ordered the authority concerned to file a report within 10 days. A hearing on this issue will be held on 17 July, said the president.

Sohrab Hossain, public relation officer of Hili Panama Port Link Ltd, said around 240 trucks got stranded inside the port for the duty complexities.

Rezvi Ahmed, deputy commissioner of Hili Customs, declined to make any comments over the issue.