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.