Containers with cargo that could be sold at auction are piling up at Chattogram port due to bureaucratic tangles, negligence in processing and legal disputes with the importers of seized consignments, according to port officials.
As a result, port operations are being disrupted by the backlog while goods worth thousands of crores of Taka are deteriorating beyond recovery, they said.
Containers are seized and the cargo is sent for auction when importers fail to claim them within a 30-day period after reaching the port yards.
The same measure is also applied if the importers violate customs rules, such as by misreporting the cargo being carried.
For example, Changing Dredging Private Limited imported 2,783 tonnes of new pipes, fittings and machinery from China in December 2019.
Furthermore, the Dhaka-based company’s import manifest showed that the goods, carried in eight containers, were valued at about Tk100 crore.
However, customs officials ultimately suspended the clearance process after discovering that the pipes were used rather than new as declared.
A legal battle challenging the subsequent seizure then ensued, preventing the goods from being auctioned for the next six years.
Eventually, the items were listed under a special auction category without any reserve price in an outcome that reflects growing dysfunction in the auction system at the country’s main seaport.
Similar cases over the years have left Chattogram port burdened with 10,125 TEUs (twenty-foot-equivalent units) of auctionable cargo at present.
The port yards have a total capacity of 59,000 TEUs, meaning that 17.16 per cent of the storage space is currently occupied by seized containers.
Officials of the port’s transport department said the congestion being caused by this backlog is seriously hampering its operational efficiency.
They informed that the port is incurring an estimated loss of about Tk400 crore annually due to the storage rent and other associated charges in having to hold the containers.
Port data shows that the volume of seized cargo stood at 7,100 TEUs by the end of 2019, with the figure having climbed steadily since.
Officials said most goods stored in the seized containers have already expired or become unusable despite crores of Taka having been spent on their import.
Over the past year, the Chattogram Port Authority (CPA) has sent at least seven letters to the National Board of Revenue (NBR), urging for action on auctionable goods and the removal of hazardous cargo from the port premises.
However, progress has been limited.
In an interview with TIMES, CPA Chairman Rear Admiral SM Moniruzzaman said they plan to conduct rapid inventories and dispose of seized containers through auctions.
“But despite repeated requests, customs have not taken effective action.”
Md Russell Ahmed, assistant commissioner (auction branch) of Chattogram Custom House, said the number of auctions has increased in line with directives from the NBR.
He informed that this December alone, a total of 306 containers were put up for auction in four separate auctions.
He added that for goods imported before 2024, no reserve price is being fixed in the auctions, which will make it easier to sell the goods to the highest bidder.
