Hundreds of wheat-laden trucks, destined for Bangladesh, have been waiting in queues at two land ports in the Indian part of the border for customs clearance, according to a report published on Thursday at the Telegraph, a Kolkata-based newspaper.
These trucks, carrying at least 0.4 million tonnes of wheat, have been waiting for around three weeks that are exposed to rotting due to rainfall, the report noted.
"The exporters are worried that delay in the transportation of the wheat will cause them losses of crores of rupees as the grain will start rotting because of rains," it said.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) of India had issued a notification on May 13, banning the export of wheat with immediate effect in the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine war.
The two conflicting countries are among the largest suppliers of wheat in the world.
The DGFT, however, said the export shipments, for which irrevocable letters of credit (LC) had been issued before May 13, would be allowed.
But at Mahadipur land port in Malda district of West Bengal, near Sonamasjid Land Port in Chapainawab-ganj of Bangladesh, around 100,000 tonnes of wheat are stuck for which Indian exporters had received payments from Bangladeshi importers before May 13.
There is no reason these consignments should be stopped from entering Bangladesh, said Uzzal Saha, the general secretary of the West Bengal Exporters' Coordination Committee (WBECC), according to the report.
Contacted by The Telegraph, a customs official said: "We need a directive from the DGFT. Otherwise, we cannot allow trucks to enter Bangladesh."
The WBECC had sent a letter to union commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on May 28, urging him to ask the DGFT to issue an order so that the wheat-laden trucks could enter Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, around 1,500 trucks laden with wheat had been stuck on the border since May 12 at Changrabandha land port in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal which is near Burimari Land Port in Lalmonirhat district, said Bimal Kumar Ghosh, president of the Changrabandha Exporters' Association.
"Our payments were cleared through SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications, an international bank payment system) and LCs also issued by Bangladeshi banks," he said, the Telegraph report added.
