DHAKA: False declaration of products takes place in 10-15 per cent of the total consignments at import stage, tackling which remained a major challenge in the recent times, said a senior official of National Board of Revenue (NBR).
According to details, it is difficult to ascertain which portion of the total import consignments accounts for false declaration, said Farid Uddin, Senior Member of NBR Customs Policy Wing.
“Institutional capacity is yet to be developed to check these irregularities,” he mentioned in the keynote paper at a seminar.
NBR organized the program at its under-construction building at Agargaon in the capital on the occasion of International Customs Day 2017. Finance Minister A M A Muhith was present in the program as the chief guest.
Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu, Prime Minister’s Economic Affairs Adviser Dr Mashiur Rahman, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Finance Chairman Abdur Razzak, and Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) President Abdul Matlub Ahmad, among others, also spoke on the occasion.
The NBR member said false declaration at import stage usually occurs in the forms of declaring HS code, quantity and price of products.
Currently, 50 to 60 customs officers handle about 2.0 million export and import containers, which is a difficult job for them, he said.
He lamented that at present customs authority has only four scanners, which were bought in 2007, and are now almost outdated. It needs at least 20-25 scanners for handling import-export containers.
The ports also lack required weigh-bridges to measure the imported goods, he added.
The finance minister in his speech said the responsibilities of the customs officers have changed a lot now.
They need to monitor under-invoicing and over-invoicing of import-export products, and also pay attention to issues related to money-laundering and terror-financing, he also said.
There is no necessity of conducting physical inspection of goods by them, as it can be done with the help of scanners, he added.
Abdur Razzak said corruption exists in customs, and general people are still complaining about this.
Dr Mashiur Rahman urged the authorities concerned to accept the invoice value of imported goods instead of following the loading mechanism, under which the customs officials assess the customs value at higher rates of invoice value.
NBR awarded seven agencies and 12 customs officials the World Customs Organisation (WCO) certificates of merit at the programme.
The seven agencies are: Office of Attorney General, Bangladesh Border Guard, Rapid Action Battalion, Bangladesh Coast Guard, FBCCI, Bangladesh Land Port Authority, and Chittagong Port Authority.
