All of the export products entitled to cash incentives will be examined physically at the customs houses before shipment from now on, in a bid to forestall any forgery.
The customs wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has dispatched instructions to all the customs houses across Bangladesh to this effect for checking irregularities, officials say.
Such pulling of the plug on 'ghost export' comes against the backdrop of numerous wrongs committed in the country's external trade, they say. Of late, 18 companies showed less exportable than the actual volume through what is dubbed under-invoicing ''in a bid to launder money and also received cash incentives illegally''.
Another four companies have shown inflated export over the real volume of products exported to the buyers through another conduit called over-invoicing.
The Chattogram Customs House (CCH) detected several cases of exporters having shown false export with inflated consignments to claim cash incentives.
Regarding such ghost export, the NBR has arranged a meeting for May 19 next to discuss preventives with customs commissioners from across the country.
However, officials in different customs houses argue that ''it is not possible to conduct cent- percent physical examination of all export goods with the existing capacity and manpower''.
Nearly 40 sectors related to readymade garment exports are currently entitled to enjoy cash incentives ranging up to 20 per cent on export value.
Leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) are also not in favour of 100- percent physical verification of all exports out of fear of ''harassment'' and delays in meeting buyers' lead time.
CCH commissioner Md Fakhrul Alam points out that customs officials are currently not equipped enough to conduct physical checking of all export goods before shipment.
''Rather, the risk- management unit should be strengthened to conduct scrutiny on random selection by detecting vulnerable companies or goods,'' he says.
Export-oriented companies having satisfactory track record should be spared while those prone to duty evasion or irregularities could be scrutinized, he suggests.
The commissioner managing the most important customs station, however, notes that ''abuse of export cash incentives has become a matter of great concern as a large sum of money was siphoned using the technique''.
BGMEA first vice- president Syed Nazrul Islam, also Managing Director of Well Designers Ltd, however, alleged involvement of verifying officers in the relevant entities in the irregularities.
"It is not fair to harass the genuine exporters for some corrupt one," he says.
Exporters submit necessary documents as per requirements of the government prior to approval of cash incentives, he mentions.
''It is responsibility of the authority concerned to verify the documents properly to detect irregularities,'' he adds.
According to customs data, a total of 18 companies claimed cash incentives illegally by furnishing documents of ghost exports worth Tk 4.51 billion through 965 consignments, mostly agro-products, on which the government offers 1.0-percent to 20-percent cash incentives on the export value.
Customs data show nearly Tk 1.0 billion in cash incentives has been received against the fake export.
Some 42 products or sectors are eligible to receive the government bounties namely incentive or cash assistance against export earnings in the current fiscal year.
In the last FY, cash incentives were provided to 38 sectors or products against exports, up from 37 recipients in FY20.
All types of industries operating in the specialised economic zones are eligible to receive 1.0-percent incentives against exports of the other products.
