The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE Chief Adviser inaugurated the Automation of Chittagong Customs House on Monday. This has been done as part of government initiative for macro-economic and structural reforms to ensure a better business and investment-friendly environment in the country. This is expected to accelerate international trading through easier delivery and quicker online services. This customs house automation has been the culmination of prolonged efforts. Before this, a number of projects involving Taka 250 crore had been taken for similar objectives on different occasions but those could not be implemented.

Customs clearance in Bangladesh had been a most complicated and lengthy process. It involved a 42-step customs procedure. In his speech on the occasion, the Army chief brought serious allegation of corruption, mismanagement, irregularities and harassment at the port. Following the automation of the House all such malpractices are expected to be removed leading to transparency in revenue collection. This is also expected to accelerate loading and unloading of goods and give a momentum to the national economy. Through simplification of the customs mechanism, automation would bring it down to only a five-step process as against the lengthy one and underhand dealings that increase business costs. The computerised system would make assessment and billing easier and help double revenue income by 2010.

The whole process of customs clearance in the country needs to be automated to ensure smooth foreign trade and corruption-free revenue collection. Loopholes in the system must be sealed as far as possible as part of strict vigilance. One important feature of the customs house automation is that this vital system has been set up depending fully on locally developed software. Automation of Chittagong Customs House is expected to give impetus to overall revenue collection.