The National Board of Revenue (NBR) has fixed the transit fare for trial shipments using Chittagong and Mongla seaports for taking goods into India. Three trial shipments via Chittagong port and one via Mongla port will arrive from India soon. Later it will go by road to India’s north-eastern states of Assam, Meghalaya, and Tripura. NBR has fixed an average fare of Tk 554 per tonne.
Recently NBR has issued a notification in this regard. India wants to take trial shipments in August. Indian authorities have already sent a letter in this regard to the Ministry of Shipping. Prothom Alo reported this on Thursday (21 July).
The four trial shipments will arrive by sea from Kolkata in West Bengal, India to Chattogram and Mongla. Later the shipments will enter India by land via Chattogram-Tamabil; Chattogram-Sheola; Chattogram-Bibirbazar and Mongla-Tamabil. Different fees have been fixed for the execution of various tasks in these shipments. For example, container scanning fee of Tk 254 per tonne, security fee of Tk 100, document processing fee of Tk 30, transshipment fee of Tk 20, escort fee of Tk 50, a miscellaneous administrative charge of Tk 100 – in all, the fee will be Tk 554 per tonne. In addition, if electric locks and seals are used for additional security of shipment of the product, then the cost will increase further.
A top customs officer of NBR said that a few days ago, according to the decision of the 13th meeting of the joint working group on Bangladesh-India Customs, the experimental shipment fee has been fixed. Later, if it becomes regular, the fee does not change much.
According to sources in the Ministry of Shipping, an agreement was signed between the two countries in October 2018 to supply goods to the north-eastern states of India using Bangladesh’s Chittagong and Mongla ports. The Ministry of Shipping of Bangladesh and the Ministry of Shipping of India signed this agreement. The transport-related agreement is called the ‘Agreement on the Use of Chittagong and Mongla Port for Movement of Goods from India (ACMP)’. The concerned people said that through this agreement, both countries will benefit economically, and trade between the two countries will increase.
Earlier, under the Naval Protocol, transit facilities have been provided using the country’s waterways and roads. In 2016, a multi-dimensional transit facility was provided to India using the Ashuganj seaport, but so far no shipments have been made.
