Chittagong: Chittagong Custom House, the country’s largest revenue collector, has collected more than Tk 53,354 crore in revenue till May 24 of the fiscal year 2022-23. At that time the company’s revenue collection target was more than 66 thousand 225 crore rupees.
The deficit is more than 12 thousand 867 crore rupees, 19.43 percent. However, in the previous financial year, 51 thousand 234 crore 41 lakh taka was collected at this time.
According to this, 2 thousand 123 crores 79 taka, 4.15 percent have been collected more.
According to sources, the revenue collection target of Chittagong Custom House in the current financial year has been set at 74 thousand 206 crores. In the last financial year, the revenue collected was 59 thousand 159 crores, the target was 64 thousand 75 crores. Custom houses mainly collect revenue on import shipments centered on major seaports of the country. 92 percent of the country’s import-export is done through this port.
Custom House is collecting arrears to increase revenue. Last month we collected arrears of Tk 18 crore. He has taken the initiative to collect revenue on behalf of the government by quickly settling the pending cases in the court. Post Clearance Audit (PCA) is being strengthened.
When asked about the shortfall in revenue collection, Chittagong Custom House Commissioner Mohammad Faizur Rahman told Banglanews that the revenue increases if commercial products are more. We feel LC has been low in this sector for a few days in between. Due to the policy, the duty on essential goods is low. If we talk about the last April, the volume of the previous year’s April products has decreased by 18 percent, the import of bond products has decreased by 17 percent, and the bill of entry has decreased by 18 percent. Cars, scrap ships, clinker, sugar, edible oil, fuel oil etc. in the list of 20 products with high revenue, revenue of 1 thousand 19 crores was less in April.
He said that Petrobangla has not yet deposited the revenue in the energy sector. If we get it, our revenue would have increased by 20 percent over last year.
In response to a question, he said, besides collecting revenue, we have taken initiatives to increase trade facilities. The Time Release Study (TRS) revealed that 72 percent of the time was wasted from IGM to submission of Bill of Entry. So we urge C&F agents to file bill of entry as soon as possible. Besides, I have strengthened the auction and demolition activities. Although the demolition process requires the sincerity of various agencies involved. We all need to clean up our dangerous and dirty ports. Recently we destroyed some chemical products in a cement factory in Sylhet.
Regarding various problems of the users with the custom house laboratory, the commissioner said that the main problem of the laboratory is the shortage of manpower. We can’t hire technicians if we want to. Organogram of National Board of Revenue is changing. Then will appoint. We are testing basic products. There are many government labs including BCSIR, Chuet, BSTI for the rest of the products.
