The Hindu Business Line : Bangla Minister promises to plug loopholes at land customs stations

THE Bangladesh Minister of Finance, Mr Saifur Rahman, has given an assurance to a visiting team of Indian exporters led by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) that the Bangladesh Bank will do its best to harmonise the system to avoid any ambiguities in the documentary credit, and alleged issuance of fake letter of credits (LCs) and no objection certificates (NOCs) by the LC opening bank.

The team members, led by Mr S.K. Jain, Chairman of FIEO, Eastern Region, had an elaborate meeting with the Minister in Dhaka recently. Some of the bilateral trade irritants pertained to non-payment against LC, synchronisation of work-timings between Indian and Bangladesh customs at border posts, and non-recording of export consignments from India at Bangladesh land customs stations (LCS).

According to Mr Jain, the Minister also gave an assurance that the National Board of Revenue of Bangladesh will be advised to work in close cooperation with its Indian counterpart. A proper system is being put in place shortly to plug the loopholes at LCS points on the Bangladesh side.

The Minister, expressing anguish over the inadequate infrastructure at LCS points on the Indian side, has urged the FIEO to take up the matter with appropriate agencies in India to bring it in line with the growing bilateral trade between the two sides, Mr Jain said.

He said that the First Secretary (E&C), High Commission of India, Dhaka, Mr Anurag Bhusan, has submitted to the Bangladesh Minister of Finance that the Government of India will contribute very positively to improving communication and containerisation of Exim cargo, which was expected to attack the root of all the major problems.

Mr Jain said that the Governor of Bangladesh Bank has given an assurance that the problems of unpaid bills against documentary credit will be examined in detail and a solution worked out.

Some of the problems faced by Indian exporters, like cases of non-recording of export cargo by Bangladesh customs; change of description of goods examined and passed by Indian customs resulting in non-payment against documentary credit, specific cases of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd and Shahjalal Islami Bank; and non-reconciliation of goods exported from India at Custom House in Bangladesh resulting in a trade dispute between the two countries were brought to the notice of Mr Khairuzzaman Chowdhury, Chairman, National Board of Revenue of Bangladesh.

Mr Jain felt that computerised operations at the LCS and exchange of export-import data via networking between customs on both sides on a regular basis may solve all the issues at one go.

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