Garment exporters unhappy as ports delay delivery

23 Jun '11

2 min read

Garment exporters in Bangladesh are unhappy over the two-day delay caused in the delivery of imported consignments even after their assessment has been completed, due to unavailability of the Customs officers on Fridays and Saturdays.

The absence of Customs officers on Fridays and Saturdays is putting unnecessary pressure on readymade garments (RMG) exporters in meeting their commitments. It is because, timely delivery of goods brought in from other countries to serve as raw material for RMG has a great bearing on timely execution of the export orders.

The value of the goods released from the port can be assessed by the fact that at least 1800 export bills and 500 import bills are presented each day by the Clearing and Forwarding Agents to the Customs authority for assessment.

Meanwhile, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has raised the container storage charges by almost 300 percent from US$ 4 in 2009 to US$ 12 now. This high storage charges force the RMG exporters to get their goods released from the port at the earliest.

But, due to absence of the Customs officers on Fridays and Saturdays, the goods which are assessed on Thursdays are released on Sundays. Thus the exporters end up paying storage charges for two additional days.

Since the Government attaches maximum importance to rapid delivery of import and export consignments, the port offices and concerned commercial banks work even on Saturdays. The exporters, however, fail to understand the reason for the absence of the Customs officers in the jetties on Saturdays.

The RMG exporters have forwarded a letter to the Commissioner of Customs (Import) urging him to do the needful in the matter and ensure presence of the Customs officials at the jetties to assist speedy delivery of consignments in broader interest of the nation. It would also save the port from being overloaded with containers.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India

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