Time and cost of import-export trade will be reduced by 30-40% once the reengineering is completed.
A foreign-aided model has been undertaken to reduce steps in the import-export process, dropping less-important ones, and for expediting delivery of goods out of the country’s major customs ports.
Sources say customs authority under the National Board of Revenue (NBR) is going to introduce a business process reengineering mechanism with the support of USAID to curtail the number of import-clearance steps in sea, air and land ports.
Time and cost of import-export trade will be reduced by 30-40% once the reengineering is completed, officials said.
The USAID is providing technical assistance to the customs authority of the revenue board and has already submitted a report by sorting out unnecessary steps regarding the import-export process, the officials added.
Sources said the port authority, Biman and other entities are also involved with the process of validation of the report.
The process of submission of hard copies and other manual steps would be automated while some other steps would be merged to cut the Gordian knot deterring the country’s foreign trade that particularly impacts the domestic market, among other adversities.
The move comes following detection of a lengthy process in a recent report of Time Release Study-2022, conducted by customs officials with the support of the World Customs Organization.
The TRS survey found importers having to complete the import-clearing process by passing through 32 steps at Chittagong seaport — the largest export-import hub of the country.
It takes 28 steps at Benapole, the largest land port, and 25 at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka.
TRS is a method endorsed by the WCO for measuring the time taken by the authorities concerned to give the all-clear to import-export cargoes.
It found importers and customs brokers mainly responsible for delays in the customs-clearance process.
Importers and their authorized customs brokers take most part of the time – from 72 to 78% of the clearance time.
In Chittagong, importers and customs brokers take up 75% of the total release time, followed by port authority 14%, customs 8%, other government organizations 2% and shipping agents 1%.
The customs authority consumes 7% of the time at Benapole land port to issue clearance while it is 6.6% at the Dhaka airport.
The TRS capacity-building project was funded by the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) of Switzerland through the WCO-SECO Global Trade Facilitation Program (GTFP).
During fiscal years 2013-2022, the number of import bills of entry processed by CCH registered a 161.1-percent rise.
In FY22, imports worth $ 73.3 billion and exports worth $ 37.6 billion were processed through CCH.
However, manpower and infrastructure have not been developed on that scale to manage such large volumes of export-import goods.
The customs authority has started moving to introduce a paperless system without human intervention but other associated entities have to be automated too.
