Inspection is underway on biggest ever consignments of alcohol seizure in Chattogram Port by custom authority. Officials said, it will take another week to complete the inspection of the consignments.
The customs officials seized the consignment from Karnphuli River on last Tuesday night. The consignment was imported as capital machineries for Bangladesh- China Power Company Ltd by mother vessel MV Qi Xia Shan. The Vessel was Chattogram Port from China on July 18. According to the customs, it carried 11,511 tonnes of goods imported by 40 companies. The goods in containers were being offloaded since Sunday.
The C&F agent offloaded around 669 boxes of different size on to litharge vessels MV Sea Sky-5 and MV Sea Enterprise, and brought those to Bangla Bazar Ghat in the city.On getting information about alcohol custom officials rushed to the spot and seized the boxes. While opening some of those, customs officials found liquor and beer of different brands. Some canned food items, including noodles, mushroom and biscuits also found in some of the boxes.
Fakhrul Alam, Commissioner of Custom told Bangladesh Post on Thursday, “After preparing the entire inventory of all the goods carried in the ship MV Qi Xia Shan, we will confirm how much alcohol and other goods have been imported without legal declaration.” “Legal actions will be processed in connection with the seizure of alcohol after carrying out an investigation into the illegal import,” he added.
According to import documents, capital machinery weighing 1,407 tonnes declared as imported by Bangladesh-China Power Company (Pvt) Limited in 669 boxes. The joint venture company is implementing a 1,320 MW power plant project at Payra of Patuakhali.
In the meantime, the port authority has imposed a temporarily ban on the ship from leaving the outer anchorage. Omar Faruqe, Secretary of Chattogram Port said, “The ship would be allowed to leave after discharging all the goods.”
Farooq also said, “The goods that were released from the ship were sent to different destinations. We have recalled all the goods and brought them back under port custody.”
