Ctg customs badly shorthanded

The Chattogram Custom House continues to operate with around half of the authorised posts being vacant, hampering its supervision on tax evasion and monitoring of import-export goods.

Both exporters and importers are also suffering because of this as it causes delays in shipments, sources at customs house said.

According to them, 651 people work at Chattogram Custom even though 1,248 posts were approved for the organisation back in 1982.

Besides, its activities have increased several times by now, they added. There are   117 first-class officers against 210 posts, 248 second-class officers against 497 posts, 181 grade three employees against 423 posts, and 100 grade four employees against 118 posts.

There have been 21 vacancies in eight categories, including programmers, chemical examiners, statistics officers, auditors and data entry operators, for over the past decade.

As per customs data, just 21 assistant commissioners and deputy commissioners responsible for evaluating the taxes on imported goods and monitoring export and import consignments are currently active against the 63 posts available.

Similarly, a total of 323 revenue officials and assistant revenue officials, who examine import-export goods though the documents provided on each consignment, are active among the 606 posts available.

Although the organisation's workforce was determined in 1982, it has not been met in the last four decades.

This is because most of the third- and-fourth-class employees retired and their posts have not been reappointed as of yet.

Although revenue collection at the customs house increased 42 times in the same period, sufficient manpower has not been recruited as per the demand.

According to customs data, Chattogram Custom collected Tk 1,017 crore in fiscal 1982-83 while it was Tk 42,853 crore in fiscal 2019-20, when it accounted for about 20 per cent of the total tax collected by the National Board of Revenue for that year (Tk 223,892 crore).

"Regular supervision of import-export goods has been hampered by the manpower shortage," Fakhrul Alam, commissioner of Chattogram Custom, told The Daily Star.

It currently takes Chattogram Custom two days extra to complete a job that could have been done within a day with adequate manpower.

"Almost all the officers have to perform additional duties and that's why they sometimes cannot scrutinise invoice documents or properly test products," Alam said.

Sources at the customs house said the situation has gradually worsened since July 2017, when a special order was issued to keep customs activities open round the clock without additional manpower.

This is why many customs officials sign documents without properly checking them and as a result, dishonest importers and C&F agents are given the scope to dodge taxes, they added.

Mahbubul Alam, president of the Chattogram Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said businessmen have to bear extra expenses for delays in shipment delivery.   "We have sent several letters to the National Board of Revenue and other related departments to increase the manpower in the customs house but the authority paid no heed," Alam said.