Bangladesh has kept the transit fees unchanged for four trial runs of transhipment of Indian goods using Mongla-Tamabil, Tamabil-Chattogram, Chattogram-Shawla and Chattogram-Bibirbazar routes.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued a gazette on Tuesday with the schedules of fees and charges - as fixed in 2020.
For document processing fee, transit charges would be Tk 30 per chalan. Fees for transshipment have been fixed at Tk 20 per tonne. Charges for security have been set at Tk 100 per tonne, escort Tk 50 per tonne, and other administrative charges Tk 100 per tonne. Container scanning fee has been set at Tk 254 per container.
The rates would be applicable only for the four trial runs of Indian goods shipment.
A senior customs official said the government had set the transit fees as per the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
The transit fees may be revised after regular transit opens for Indian goods after the trial runs, he said.
In the 13th meeting of the Bangladesh-India Joint Group of Customs, both the countries agreed to conduct four trial runs to assess prospects of the transit facility.
In October 2018, Bangladesh and India signed the 'Agreement on the use of Chittagong and Mongla port for movement of goods to and from India' - mainly to provide transshipment facility to India to carry goods to its north eastern states using Bangladeshi ports.
After that, the first trial run under the agreement was conducted in July 2020 where four containers loaded with iron rods and pulses were brought from Haldia port in Kolkata to Chittagong port.
Later, they were sent to Tripura and Assam by road using the Akhaura land port.
In an Inter-ministerial meeting on Tuesday, Bangladesh agreed to let India conduct two more trial runs of cargo transshipment using Chittagong and Mongla ports in late July.
However, no decision is yet to be taken when the remaining two trial runs will be held as agreed by two sides - before India can start regular transshipment of goods to its north eastern states using two Bangladeshi ports.
Sources said the meeting had taken the decision to conduct the runs between July 25 and July 29 as proposed by India and asked the agencies involved in the trial-run procedure to take full preparation for the events before the date.
"India will be informed shortly about the decision on trial runs," said a senior shipping ministry official, wishing not to be named.
Shipping Secretary Mostafa Kamal, however, told the FE after the meeting that he would forward the meeting proceedings to the state minister for shipping to take a decision on trial-run dates.
Recently, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka wrote to the shipping ministry expressing willingness to hold the trial runs in late July.
Officials said India was now showing eagerness to start regular use of Chittagong and Mongla ports as soon as possible.
Another senior shipping ministry official told the FE that Bangladesh was fully prepared to hold the trial runs of Indian cargo transshipment any time.
He said the NBR had already finalised the required standard operating procedure (SOP), which would be issued soon.
"As Bangladesh has not implemented the e-lock system, Indian cargoes will take escort services during the transit time," he said.
A customs official said Shawla port was affected due to flood and Bibirbazar was yet to develop capacity to handle heavy goods.
Except these two ports, other two ports could be used for the trial runs right now, he added.
India is eager for regular transit as its vehicles need to travel over 1,650 kilometres to transport goods from Kolkata to Agartala through Guwahati in the landlocked north.
If goods are transported through using Chittagong and Mongla ports, the travel distance is cut down to a few hundred kilometres, lowering required time and transportation costs.
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