The National Board of Revenue (NBR), for the first time, has issued a guideline on auction and destruction of confiscated goods by the customs houses.
Unreleased or smuggled goods will be auctioned and demolished by the customs houses in accordance with the NBR's prescribed guideline. The NBR Customs Wing issued a gazette notification in this connection on January 10 last.
Earlier, different customs houses followed their own process for auction or destruction of various products due to the absence of a central guideline.
The new guideline has incorporated disposal procedures of all types of goods, including perishable goods, import-prohibited goods, unreleased imported goods, and confiscated and seized goods following allegation of smuggling.
Talking to the FE, Riyadul Islam, second secretary of NBR Customs Wing - who issued the order, said the guideline has been issued to help the customs houses follow a general procedure for auction and destruction of goods.
He said e-auction system has also been incorporated in the guideline to check syndication and corruption.
"People can participate in the auction from anywhere through the e-auction process."
E-auction must be conducted through e-auction software on Bangladesh Customs website.
Submission of tenders and selection of bidders will be transparent through automation of the auction process, he expressed the hope.
The customs authorities, according to the guideline, will destroy alcohol, liquor and cigarette, if these items cannot be sold to authorised agencies. They will destroy other contraband, unreleased and confiscated goods in case of failure to dispose those in other means.
The customs houses will have to arrange at least two auctions every month and one destruction activity in every six month, the NBR order said.
As per the order, the customs authorities will have to deposit precious metals, like -- gold, silver and platinum, along with foreign currencies to the nearest Bangladesh Bank (BB) or treasury bank branches within three days of receiving the valuables at customs warehouses.
If it is not possible to deposit the precious metals within the timeline, the customs authorities will have to hand those over to local branch or head office of the BB as soon as possible after complying with the rules and regulations concerned.
Until completion of the deposit procedure, the items should be preserved in warehouses under proper security measures.
The government agencies responsible to prevent smuggling will hand over the goods, seized for smuggling, to customs warehouses.
Unreleased import and export goods should have to be transferred to customs or customs bonded auction warehouses.
Before confiscation, the customs authorities will serve notices on the traders concerned giving 10 days time for releasing unreleased goods.
Owners or claimants of the seized smuggled goods or other confiscated goods will also get the same number of days for establishing their claims.
The customs authorities will confiscate the goods in favour of the state, if the importer or the exporter does not release the goods even after getting notices from the customs offices.
Each of the customs houses will form their respective auction committee, headed by an additional or joint commissioner.
The committee will arrange open auction for perishable goods immediately after receiving the auctionable products.
It will announce the specific time of auction through miking in around two km areas of the auction place.
As per the NBR order, the port authorities will have to provide the list of unreleased non-perishable export-import goods within five days of the expiry deadline
Bidding firms for auction must have updated trade licence, business identification number, and electronic taxpayers' identification number (e-TIN), while individual bidders must have updated e-TIN.
The customs commissioner will be able to appoint any organisation as auctioneer to assist the customs house or commissionerate to conduct auction.
The auctioneer will have to publish advertisements in at least two national dailies and one local daily newspaper before seven days of auction, the order added.
