The Bangladesh government has given India permission to use Chattogram and Mongla seaports for transit and transshipment of goods.
The National Board of Revenue (NBR) issued a permanent transit order in this regard on Tuesday.
According to NBR order, "Customs procedures for transit and transshipment goods will be conducted as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) signed between Bangladesh and India under the Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports for Movement of Goods [ACMP] to and from India."
Goods prohibited by Bangladesh will not be allowed to be transported and the transported goods can’t be kept at Bangladesh ports for more than 7 days. It also specifies the rates for processing the document, the transshipment fee and other administrative and commercial fees.
The order says that the transit and transshipment of goods will be carried out as per the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) signed between the two countries to operationalise the Agreement during the visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh to India in 2019.
The signing of the SOP was a follow-up of the Agreement on the use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports (ACMP) signed in 2018.
Earlier, the trial run for the transit and transshipment was started in July/August 2020 and the fourth and final trial run was completed in October 2022 with the trial run of cargo arriving from Meghalaya via the Dawki-Tamabil-Chattogram route to Kolkata.
The routes for transit and transshipment include Chattogram-Mongla port to Agartala via Akhaura, Chattogram-Mongla port to Dawki via Tamabil, Chattogram-Mongla port to Sutarkandi via Sheola, Chattogram-Mongla port to Srimantapur via Bibirbazar and vice versa.
