All import containers can be shifted to ICDs
The revenue authority has at last allowed all types of import containers to be shifted and stored at the 19 private inland container depots until June 30 in a bid to decongest the Chattogram port premises.
As of yesterday, a total of 47,577 twenty-feet equivalent units (TEUs) of import load containers were lying at the port yards, against its capacity of 37,620 TEUs.
The acute container congestion was created due to slow delivery of imported goods amid the long-drawn government holidays declared to contain the spread of coronavirus, according to Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) and users.
But thanks to the National Board of Revenue's decision, about 18,000 TEUs of import containers can now be shifted to the ICDs, said Shipping Secretary Md Mezbah Uddin Ahmed.
Ahsanul Huq Chowdhury, chairman of Bangladesh Shipping Agents' Association, welcomed the move, which came following recommendations from the shipping ministry.
But he stressed on quick dispatch of the import containers from the ICDs. Otherwise, their storage space too would run out.
The NBR though attached some conditions with the order yesterday.
As per the conditions, all the containers should be scanned while shifting those from the port, and after being transferred to the ICDs, those should be physically examined jointly by Customs House, Chattogram and Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate.
Normally, only 38 types of import containers are allowed to be shifted directly to the ICDs. But in the face of severe container congestion, the CPA at a meeting on April 14 proposed shifting about 20,000 TEUs of import containers to the ICDs and SAPL river terminal in Munshiganj.
The NBR on April 18 issued an order allowing another six categories of import containers to be stored at the ICDs but the CPA on the same day sent a letter to the shipping ministry seeking permission to shift all types of import containers.
"The port is the lifeline of the country's economy and it needs to be kept operational at any cost," said Khalid Mahmud Chowdhury, the state minister for shipping, in a press briefing after a meeting with CPA officials in Chattogram yesterday.
CPA Member Md Zafar Alam said they took steps to shift import containers to the ICDs immediately after the NBR order.
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