Customs delays at Ctg Port drive up business costs: CCCI

CHATTOGRAM, July 12: Bangladesh's largest business chamber has accused customs authorities of undermining the government's drive to improve the ease of doing business, alleging that bureaucratic delays, repeated inspections and cumbersome clearance procedures at Chattogram Port are sharply increasing business costs despite clear ministerial directives to speed up cargo release.

In a strongly worded letter to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) has urged the tax authority to overhaul customs procedures, warning that prolonged clearance delays are eroding the competitiveness of Bangladeshi businesses and adding significant costs to international trade.

The letter, addressed to Acting NBR Chairman and Acting Secretary of the Internal Resources Division Ahsan H. Habib on Sunday, called for urgent reforms to align Bangladesh's customs system with international best practices by simplifying documentation, reducing unnecessary inspections and ensuring faster clearance of imported goods.

Congratulating the newly appointed acting chairman, CCCI President Mohammad Amirul Haque expressed hope that his leadership would accelerate long-overdue reforms, improve Bangladesh's standing in global ease of doing business rankings and lower the cost of trade.

The chamber reminded the NBR of Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury's recent directive issued during a meeting in Chattogram, where customs and port authorities were instructed to complete customs formalities and release imported consignments within four days to ease congestion, reduce logistics costs and improve port efficiency.

The minister had also ordered the immediate activation of idle container scanners and called for measures to reduce vessel and container congestion at the country's principal seaport.

However, according to the CCCI, little has changed on the ground.

The chamber alleged that importers continue to face lengthy delays because of administrative inefficiency, lack of coordination among government agencies, non-cooperation by some customs officials and unnecessary procedural complexities that have slowed cargo movement instead of facilitating trade.

"As a result, traders are bearing an increasing financial burden through customs- and port-related charges, raising operating costs and weakening the international competitiveness of Bangladeshi products," the chamber said.

The business body particularly criticised the continued practice of verifying signatures on Certificates of Origin despite the availability of internationally recognised Electronic Certificates of Origin (e-CO), arguing that the outdated manual process frequently delays cargo release by several days without adding any meaningful compliance value.

According to the chamber, customs clearance routinely takes seven to eight days, and in many cases even longer, significantly exceeding the government's target and international benchmarks.

The CCCI also alleged that customs officials often determine the dutiable value of imported goods through arbitrary value additions rather than applying the valuation methods prescribed under existing laws, making the assessment process more complicated, unpredictable and time-consuming.

These delays, it said, force importers to incur substantial additional costs through port storage charges, container detention fees and laboratory testing expenses, ultimately increasing the price of imported goods and raising the overall cost of doing business across the economy.

Although the Customs Act 2023 introduced modern trade facilitation measures�"including paperless customs, pre-arrival processing and risk-based inspections�"in line with global standards, the chamber said businesses have yet to benefit because the reforms remain only partially implemented.

Warning that inefficient customs procedures are undermining Bangladesh's trade competitiveness at a time of growing global competition, the CCCI called on the NBR to fully implement internationally accepted customs practices, streamline valuation procedures, minimise unnecessary inspections, accelerate cargo clearance and substantially reduce compliance costs for businesses.