Apparel Online Bangladesh Magazine November Issue 2018 | Page 36

BANGLADESH CANVAS
Customs fail at land-port: BD-India throwing
mud at each other
It has been a couple of months
since 24×7 operation started at
Benapole-Petrapole land border
– a land-port that handles nearly
60 per cent of the Bangladesh-India
trade from the Bangladesh side.
Allegations are that it has done
little to speed up the
bilateral trade.
The new set of commitment raised
hopes that border trade would
continue 24/7 and cut the time
lag on the border – through the
Benapole-Petrapole Integrated
Check Post (ICP) – and would
help to reduce the prices of goods
imported and exported through
the port that still suffers from
congestion owing to inadequate
infrastructure and handling
of equipment.
India has blamed Bangladesh’s
customs department for delaying
the consignment of trucks, which
remain stranded for 6 days on
an average. While some trucks
get cleared by a day, some are
left waiting for as long as 15 days
to clear – that too despite 24×7
operation. Most of the blame has
been put on Bangladesh – the
incapacity of its customs officers
– leading to troubles on the Indian
side as well.
Responding to such allegations,
Bangladeshi customs officials
have shot back, saying they are
working round the clock to ease the
persisting congestion; and that the
slackness of the Indian officers is
the key reason behind the jam.
“Indian officers never come to
work before 12 noon. Due to this,
our trucks cannot enter the Indian
side, their trucks cannot enter
ours,” Md Belal Hossain, Customs
Commissioner at Benapole land-
port told Apparel Online. “The
most frustrating fact is that their
emptied trucks cannot return
either way and create congestion at
the port.” It is to be noted that the
designated time for truck entry is
from 7:00 am to 7:00 pm.
Adding further, he said: “We check
their trucks at one point. They
check our trucks at 3 different
points. They keep our trucks
waiting. We are working our best
to ease the congestion. Our officers
are working on the field, till 2:00
am in the night, to ease up the port
and clear all the congestion.”
Before the new measures, on an
average, 350 trucks used to enter
Bangladesh and 150-200 trucks
entered India every day through
the land-port. Besides, 2,000 to
2,500 trucks usually remained
stranded on both sides of the
border for not getting the serial.
And even after they did, inside
Bangladesh, they had to wait due
to lack of cranes and forklifts.
The scenario has changed
drastically now and a lot of
improvement is visible – the queue
has been reduced to more than
half. From what could be known
from the ground, around a month
back, there were about 1,300 trucks
waiting to enter Bangladesh from
the Indian side and about 80-90
were standing in queue from the
Bangladesh side.
It has been confirmed that some
of the trucks take up to 15 days to
clear. However, it is affirmative that
most of the trucks which are laden
with perishable goods generally get
released within a time period of 3-4
hours. Non-perishable goods are the
ones to be worried about – which, at
times, have to wait agonisingly long.
From what could be known, it is the
testing facility that takes up most of
the time for non-perishables. These
testing facilities test products like
chemicals, dye, and any other that
need chemical testing before being
allowed into Bangladesh. Also,
sometimes, some goods require
policy-level clearance which also
takes up a long time.
DBL, Urmi Group among ‘top exporters'
One of the largest knit
manufacturers of Bangladesh, the
DBL Group, along with another
decades-old apparel maker Urmi
Group, have been honoured with
the HSBC Export Excellence
Awards as the top readymade
garment exporters of the country.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed
handed over the recognition
crests at the 8th edition of HSBC
Awards in a gala ceremony held at
Radisson Blu Dhaka Water Garden
Hotel in Dhaka recently. Four other
exporters were also awarded.
A leading knitwear garments and
fabrics manufacturer and exporter
in Bangladesh since 1991, DBL
Group caters to buyers mainly
in the European Union and the
US. It is currently composed of 25
concerns with a workforce of 30,000
and an annual export turnover of
more than US $ 100 million.
It claims to be the Platinum
Supplier of H&M for knit garments.
H&M, Walmart-George, Puma,
Esprit and G-Star are among its
major buyers. The group boasts
of a capacity of 13 million pieces
of apparel items a month with
specialisation in women and
kidswear. On the other hand, the
Urmi Group started its journey
in the 1950s and is accredited by
leading international clothing
brands. It exports to 49 countries
across six continents for 13
retailers. It now has more than 90
production lines and over 8,000
people working relentlessly.
The group boasts of a capacity of
producing 1,50,000 pieces of apparel
items per day. Claiming to have a
good market share in Germany,
36 Apparel Online Bangladesh | November 2018 | www.apparelresources.com
the group caters to buyers like
Muji, Puma, M&S, s. Oliver, H&M,
Lidl, Tchibo, Ernsting’s family,
Ellos, La Redoute, Vertbaudet,
Auchan, Decathlon, Fullbeauty,
Toray International, Kmart,
Kaufland, Primark, Next and
others. The other winners are:
Etafil Accessories, Western Marine
Shipyard, Mazen (Bangladesh)
Industries Ltd, and Walton Hi-Tech
Industries Ltd. Etafil Accessories
became the exporter of the year
in the supply chain and backward
linkage category for an annual
export turnover of US $ 10 million
and more. Established in 1998,
Etafil Accessories is a concern of
Tamishna Group, a manufacturer
and exporter of sewing thread,
garment accessories and yarn
dyeing.