Jasim Uddin Haroon

The local reconditioned car importers have slowed down their taking delivery of imported vehicles keeping the country's prime seaport in the soup.

Chittagong Port and customs sources said about 812 cars, the importers of which failed to submit bills of entry on June 11 last when the national budget was unveiled, have also worsened the situation as most of them remained stuck-up at the port yards.

A car carrier entered the port on June 11 just before the budget announcement with 1,818 vehicles and only 1,006 cars of them managed to escape the higher rate of duty, thanks to submission of bills of entry in time.

"Car delivery in the recent days has been sluggish," Md Belal Hossain, a joint commissioner of Chittagong Customs House, told the FE.

However, the Chittagong Port Authority (CPA) has issued a fresh letter to the customs authority to take steps for auction of the cars immediately as a large number of the imported vehicles are just hampering daily activities.

"We have sent a letter to the customs authority to expedite car auction as our operational activities are being hampered as a large number of cars lie idle on the port yards," said Golam Sarwar, a deputy traffic manager.

As of Friday, 4,401 cars remained undelivered at the port against its present capacity of 4,000 cars as the CPA recently expanded the spaces for cars. Earlier the port yards could accommodate only 2,800 vehicles.

Port sources said it delivered only 13 cars Thursday last.

Mr Sarwar, however, said there are around 2,000 cars, which have crossed 30 days of their stay at the port yards.

As per customs rules, a car or any other imported product crossing 30 days of stay at the port yards will automatically be eligible for auction.

CPA officials said the importers are not responding well to a notice issued by the port authority to take quick delivery of their cars.

They also said imposition of penal rents did not yield any result as they then went for other options to avert port rents.

"We earlier increased penal rents to discourage long stay of cars at the port yards but its outcome was not satisfactory," Mr Sarwar added.

MAH Sharif, former secretary general of Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicle Importers and Dealers Association, told the FE: "Imposition of high duty on car import is the main reason behind the slow delivery."

He said the government has reviewed the tariff, saying it is still high and each importer has to pay at least an additional Tk 260,000 on a 1500 cc car.

The automobile importers sold 23,000 cars in the 2007-08 fiscal year, contributing Tk 17 billion to the National Board of Revenue (NBR).

According to the BARVIDA, about 27,000 cars might have been sold in 2008-09 fiscal.