NBR to cut shipment clearance times
The government aims to bring down the clearance time for imported consignments to two days from the existing eight days by 2022.
For exports, it targets 24 hours from the existing five days by bringing all 39 agencies involved in processing overseas shipments under a single electronic platform.
This was disclosed at a workshop jointly organised by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) at The Palace Luxury Resort in Habiganj yesterday.
With support from World Bank-financed Bangladesh Regional Connectivity Project 1, the NBR is implementing a $74 million National Single Window (NSW) project to establish an electronic gateway to speed up the clearance process and reduce business costs.
A press statement says the NSW would deliver a user-friendly, electronic system that streamlines and automates procedures for registered private sector stakeholders and government agencies for international trade-related permits, licences, certificates, and customs declarations.
Once the project is implemented, some 208 types of services would be provided and it is likely to benefit 319,000 importers and exporters, says the NBR, which signed an agreement with the 39 agencies in August last year.
Khondaker Muhammad Aminur Rahman, the NSW project director, said Bangladesh would be a lucrative destination for investors if cost and time of doing business were reduced.
Rahman, also the NBR member for customs audit, modernisation and international trade, said results of a study on clearance times by customs at ports were not satisfactory and if the situation continues, Bangladesh might lose its competitiveness.
Connecting through video conference, NBR Chairman Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the NSW would make export and import easy, positively impacting the economy.
The NSW project was scheduled to end in December 2020 but is expected to be extended till 2022 owing to its implementation being sluggish.
NBR Member VAT Audit and Intelligence Md Masud Sadiq and IFC Private Sector Specialist Nusrat Nahid Babi also spoke at the workshop.
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