Govt panel proposes separate transit body

A government panel has suggested that a national authority should be formed and separate protocols be signed in each country for smooth transportation of cargo to provide transit to India, Nepal and Bhutan through Bangladesh.
“There should be a national transit authority in each of the contracting parties to deal with the day-to-day functional matters,” the transit committee led by Bangladesh Tariff Commission Chairman Mozibur Rahman said in a report.
The committee formed last year has several sub-committees comprising experts in the related fields. They have also reviewed the ways other countries provide transit.
The committee said the national authorities will have specific mandates in addressing the daily routine activities.
Cases requiring technical and policy guidelines not covered by the jurisdiction of the national authorities shall be referred to a higher body -- Expert Working Group -- comprising experts from all partner countries, the report said.
The committee recommended a secretariat, preferably located in the main transit providing country, Bangladesh, to ensure coordination among stakeholders.
Finally, there shall be a council of ministers from among the partner countries to give policy directives and consider changes to agreement, if necessary, according to the report.
Experiences of transit operations in various regions of the world suggest that in order for a transit regime to be smooth and sustainable a proper institutional foundation is of crucial importance.
There will be need for a good number of protocols and standard operating procedures to which the transit partners will be signatories. The protocols are on the movement of transit cargo by designated roadways, waterways and railways.
The committee recommended separate protocols on transit fees/charges on multimodal movement of transit and transshipped cargoes.
The committee also advised signing of separate protocols on customs procedures and land port procedures, immigration-related matters, insurance of transit cargo and handling of transit cargo at Mongla and Chittagong seaports.
It also suggested signing of protocols on security and monitoring related matters in the movement of transit vehicles and cargoes, sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures and dispute settlement.
A commerce ministry official said the committee made some recommendations on charging fees for transit in the light of the experiences of other countries.
According to the report, application of transit charges is also common among the African countries. In 1991, nineteen members of Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa introduced a harmonised scheme for road transport charges.
In case of Bangladesh, the committee has recommended a transit fee per tonne per kilometre on the basis of various charges such as infrastructure development charge and congestion charges.
Considering this as the base, the committee also suggested a route-wise charge per consignment.
The report said, since the charges are variable as well as fixed, it is not possible to determine the charges per tonne-km for different modes of transportation. In fact, charges per tonne-km will vary for different routes for the same mode of transport, it added.
However, an estimate shows that depending on the routes, charges will vary from $0.80 to $0.11 for road transport, from $0.05 to $0.06 for railways and $0.02 to $0.03 for waterways.
The report also recommended route wise per consignment charges on 17 routes (roads, rail and waterways). For example, on Agartala-Chittagong route, the charge will be $252 per consignment, which is equivalent to Tk 18,907 for road.
The commerce ministry official said the committee has recommended various options for charging the fees. But the fees will be finalised by the two countries concerned through discussion.