Chittagong Custom House has temporarily suspended the ongoing strike of officials and employees of the Customs, VAT and Income Tax departments in protest against the abolition of the National Board of Revenue (NBR).
Activities are going on at a fast pace in every department, including import, export, assessment. The Custom House grounds are bustling with traders and their representatives who have come to expect clearance of goods after a long wait. New enthusiasm has arisen as the deadlock is broken. The activities of the Customs officials and employees have been going on with new enthusiasm as the deadlock is over.
On Tuesday morning, every department of the Custom House was bustling with activity. There was a lot of work to be done in this. There was a lot of work to be done in the files and computers.
The officials are working tirelessly to quickly dispose of the large number of files accumulated due to the strike.
Spokesperson and Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Custom House Saidul Islam said, "Today we are carrying out all activities in full swing.
The strike has been suspended. However, there is no complete solution. There is a meeting with the Financial Advisor Sir on Tuesday evening. It will be known after the meeting whether the strike will resume. All our pending work is being completed quickly."
President of Chittagong Customs Agents Association SM Saiful Islam said, "The officials have returned to work at the Custom House. The files deposited in it are being disposed of. This created a container jam at the port. Customs and the port authority will have to work together to resolve this. It is important to take initiatives to quickly unload the jammed containers. Traders have faced big losses due to not being able to unload imported goods. Traders are getting some relief after seeing this activity at the customs."
Secretary of Chittagong Port Authority Md. Omar Faruk said, "We are also happy that the activities at the Custom House have resumed. The suspension of the strike by customs officials has created a container jam at the port. This will help resolve the container jam at the port quickly. Emphasis has been placed on yard management and container transfer. "The situation will normalize in the coming days."
According to port sources, 9,243 TEUs of containers have been handled inside the port in the last 24 hours. Currently, 111 ships are stationed at the jetty and outer anchorage, of which 57 are in non-operational condition. The number of containers at the port was 35,973 TEUs on April 30, which increased to 40,078 TEUs last week.
According to the port authority, in the last 24 hours, 5,813 TEUs of containers were unloaded from ships and 115 TEUs arrived at the port from Dhaka ICD. 2,178 TEUs of export goods and 752 TEUs of empty containers arrived at the port from the off-docks. But against this, 3,430 TEUs of containers have been shipped and containers have also been transferred to other places.
