Chattogram Customs House is auctioning the old luxury cars brought through the carnet facility of tourists again. The customs authority is organising auctions for the sale of 108 vehicles in both normal and online methods. The catalogue can be purchased on 29 May and submitted from 12 to 13 June. Customs is also allowing seeing the vehicles inside the port before buying.
These cars of the most expensive brands in the world have been lying in the auction shed of Chittagong port for 10 years. So far it has been auctioned at least eight times, but only three cars have been sold. The two main reasons why these cars were not sold at auctions were lack of commercial permit or CP from the Ministry of Commerce and determination of reserve value.
According to the Chattogram Customs House, Bangladeshi expatriates used to bring these vehicles with the ‘Carnet the Passage’ facility when they came from abroad. But when they left Bangladesh, they used to sell the cars illegally in the country instead of returning them. Foreign tourists or expatriates stopped unloading these vehicles from the port after the customs imposed strictures to prevent the misuse of vehicles brought under the carnet facility. The vehicles have been lying in the port shed since 2011. And all the cars are of world-famous brands and expensive. However, some of the equipment has been damaged due to the vehicles lying inside containers and outside at the port for a long time.
Among the cars are 26 Mitsubishi, 25 Mercedes Benz, 25 BMW, seven Land Rovers, seven Land Cruisers, six Lexus, five Fords, three Jaguars, one Daewoo, one Honda, and one CRV. Most of these vehicles are 10 years old, but imports of cars older than four years are banned in the country. So even if these cars were put up for auction, it would not be possible to get registration from BRTA. Because of this, it will be possible to get the registration of these vehicles from BRTA with the special approval of the Ministry of Commerce or CP. The last auction was held in November 2021.
