Customs intelligence of Bangladesh and India are going to start their first official talks on prevention of smuggling, money laundering and check misdeclaration on prices and quantity of import and export goods in border trade between the two countries.
The first ever two-day talks between director general of Bangladesh’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate and India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence will begin on Sunday in Dhaka.
Customs intelligence director general Md Shahidul Islam said that they would discuss and find ways out for exchange of customs information to prevent smuggling, money laundering, cross-border terrorism, duty evasion and other trade related issues including misdeclaration.
‘It will be easier to secure the border trade and enhance the security of the countries through exchange of intelligence information between the two agencies,’ he said at a press briefing held on Thursday at CIID conference room.
It is important for Bangladesh to secure the border trade with India, the second largest trading partner of the country through land, sea and air ports, he said.
Bangladesh imported goods worth Tk 85,210 crore from India while exported goods valued only Tk 7,617 crore in the fiscal year 2017-2018.
National Board of Revenue also collected Tk 21,448 crore in revenue from the bilateral trade between the two countries.
The talks will also emphasise on boosting the security of the country through checking transportation of precursor chemicals used in manufacturing of improvised explosive devices, he said.
Bangladesh side has identified 12 agenda including establish a hotline for exchange of information, establish a joint working group, design the forms and tables to exchange secret intelligence electronically, conduct surveillance on the movement of passengers and strengthening the monitoring of the consignment assessed under the preferential trade agreement.
On the other hand, India will emphasise on measures to control smuggling of gold, wildlife, fake Indian currency, drugs and cattle to and from India, according to the agenda of DRI.
DRI will raise the issue of smuggling of methamphetamine (Yaba) and codeine based cough syrups at the meeting, it said.
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