Business at the country's prime gateway, Chattogram Port has attained near normalcy after a long five months amid the ongoing coronavirus epidemic.
Port sources said, at present, an average of 4000-4200 containers are being delivered daily, which is similar to that in the same period last year.
Authorities said the port's business in a pandemic has been more than expected, but the desired growth is not being achieved.
Although the shutdown started in the last week of March after the outbreak of coronavirus, more than one crore tonnes of goods were imported and exported through Chattogram port in that month, which is seven lakh tonnes more than that in the previous month of February.
In May, the volume of imports and exports decreased to 53.43 million tonnes, and in June it was 63 lakh 95 thousand tonnes. In July, business began to increase in the port with imports and exports reaching 74 lakh 24 thousand tonnes.
Zafar Alam, Member (admin) of the port's board of directors, told this reporter, on an average, more than 4,200 containers are being unloaded at the port every day this August, which is close to normal.
“Although this trend shows potential in the event of an epidemic, it will be difficult to meet the overall deficit of the past months,” he added.
“At the end of the year, he thinks, growth could be at least 5-6 percent lower.”
Although everything closed during the epidemic, the port was kept open under special arrangements. It was also normal for ships to come and go in the port. But with most factories and businesses in the country closed, importers have taken only a few deliveries. At the time, there were piles of containers of imported goods in the port yard, which had a capacity of 50,000 Containers (20 feet). This situation lasted until mid-April and mid-May.
At present, business at the port is getting the shape of the pre- pandemic situation, but the revenue is not being collected in the same way at Chattogram Customs House, the largest revenue collecting house in the country.
Due to the slowdown in the last three months of the last financial year for recession in financial activities in the fiscal year 2019-20, the revenue collection has been 41 thousand crore, which is Tk 2000 crore less than the fiscal year 2018-19.
The revenue collection target for the current fiscal year 2020-21 is Tk 65,000 crore.
Falling imports of high tax products have raised concerns about the achievement of this target.
The growth in revenue collection has been estimated at 10 to 12 percent per annum. According to the Board of Revenue NBR, import of 20 high duty products have reduced almost 20 percent in which car imports have already declined by 60 per cent.
Fakhrul Alam, Commissioner of Chattogram Customs said “efforts were being made to keep the revenue collection at the previous trend even after excluding growth.”
“In order to cover the deficit, utmost importance is being given to prevent incidents like import of goods through duty evasion and false declarations,” he added.
Imports of the items reduced including recondition cars, trucks, piston engines, motorcycles, high-speed diesel fuel, lubricants, crude oil, lube-base oils, scrap vessels, petroleum oil, cement clinker, finished ceramic products, wires of refined copper, and betel nut.
Importers and customs officials said the main reasons for the drop in imports were closure of industrial units and fewer vehicles plying amid the pandemic since March.
In the corona epidemic period, import of luxury items has decreased, but the import of foods and other essentials items is normal.