Mohammad Ali Khokon

Many shipping lines do not want to send their vessels to Chattogram port as they face delays in the unloading of goods due to customs procedures, according to Mohammad Ali Khokon, president of the Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA).

As a result, Bangladesh's economic recovery from the severe Covid-19 fallout has been seriously affected, he said at an event on Tuesday.

Besides, the unusual rise in shipping costs has also hampered the recovery of various export-oriented industries.

Considering the situation, Khokon urged the government to take steps to stop the harassment of businesspeople at the port, where the customs department allegedly delays the release of goods due to procedural problems.

The imported goods are often even left unattended at the port for months because of issues regarding VAT and tax payments, he said, adding that businesses incur losses due to such delays.

The businesses have to pay a big amount of port demurrage for overstaying and so, they want to escape this harassment by customs officials, Khokon said.

The BTMA chief was speaking at an event marking Bangladesh's 50th anniversary of independence at InterContinental Dhaka.

For instance, Khokon imported a container of pima cotton from the US spending $5 lakh, but the container ship refused to come to Chattogram because of port congestion and instead left the cotton unattended at Shanghai Port in China.

Khokon was eventually able to trace his shipment to Shanghai Port before bringing it to Chattogram but he is yet to get a berth even though the goods were loaded in the US in August this year.

The shipping charge has increased abnormally from $600 per container in the pre-pandemic era to $6,000 per container now following a sudden rise in demand for container ships with the recovery of businesses from the Covid-19 fallout.

However, the BTMA chief said 2022 could be a new horizon for the country's textile and garment sectors as local weaving and spinning mills are already overbooked with work orders from international retailers and brands.

The local textile industry is worth about $8 billion but mills that make fabrics for the domestic market lost Tk 8,000 crore collectively as they missed the sales bonanza in the two Eids and Puja for the last two years amid the pandemic.

He also urged the government to amend laws of the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission as local fabrics manufacturers often cannot compete with imported fabrics from India and Pakistan due to wrong assessments from the tariff commission.