Benapole port has regained incredible momentum in the import of goods

Osman Gani, Benapole: The introduction of 'online booking system' in West Bengal has given an incredible speed to the import of goods at Benapole port. Earlier, imported goods had to wait 30 to 40 days at Petrapol to enter the country. Additional detention charges and godown rent had to be calculated. According to the importers, the additional expenditure in this sector was about Rs. Now Indian cargo trucks are entering Benapole port from Petrapol in 3 days. As a result, a huge amount of foreign currency is being saved along with the import of goods at the earliest. According to Petrapol sources, the Transport Department has recently launched the Online Slot Booking System or Facilitation Vehicles Facilitation System to facilitate the export of goods by truck through the land ports of West Bengal with Bangladesh. Under the old system, trucks carrying goods from outside the state used to enter the Transport Department at three places in Bangaon town (Kalitala, Kalibari Mor and BSF Camp Mor) before proceeding to Petrapol port. Then he would wait for the clearance to go to the border. It used to take a month or more to get this clearance. Until then, the goods of trucks were taken to local godowns or local trucks and kept in private parking lots. Most of the trucks coming from outside used to drop the goods at Bangaon and return. Because of this there are many godowns and parking lots in Bangaon. This syndicate is also called Kalitala Syndicate around Bangaon parking and godown. In this cycle, 30 to 40 days were stuck and each truck had to multiply an average of 70 to 80 thousand rupees. Which is about thousand crore rupees per year. According to the information of Opar Transport Department, under the new management, traders from any part of India will be able to make 'slot booking' online in advance for transporting goods by truck to Bangladesh through land port. This work will require 5 thousand taka for the chassis and 10 thousand taka for the truck loaded with goods. Kalitala parking syndicate has broken under this new management. Traders involved in the import trade say that since the West Bengal government broke up the Bangaon Kalitala parking syndicate and introduced online slot booking, trucks from any province in India reach Benapole within 1-2 days after arriving in Kolkata. As a result, happy traders. They say that if the government officials of both countries, especially the Indian Transport Department, Port Customs and Benapole Customs and Port LPI conduct regular monitoring, the detention of Bangaon Parking Syndicate on the entry of Indian cargo trucks will be lost forever. Director of Bangladesh-India Chamber of Commerce Motiar Rahman said that every importer of Bangladesh had to pay duty by mentioning the 30-35 day truck detention charge and cargo truck charge of Bongaon, Kalitla parking along with the price of the product while opening the letter of credit. For the past decade, about a thousand crore rupees have been spent on Kalitala parking and detention charges alone. Not only that, after a truck from Delhi, Mumbai or different provinces of India arrived at Petrapole, the goods would be unloaded at the local godown. Later the same product was loaded in two trucks and sent to Benapole which was outside the terms of the letter of credit. Part shipment is allowed in LC but trans shipment is prohibited. Bongaon parking syndicate used to enter the trucks with fake numbers. He said that later that serial number was also sold for 50 thousand rupees. Benapole Port Import Export Association Vice President Aminul Haque said that at one time a cargo truck had to be detained for 30 to 40 days after taking entry. Still, the goods entered the country by paying brokers. The West Bengal State Government gave a master stroke to change this old system. The responsibility of controlling parking was transferred from the municipality to the Department of Transport. After the new decision, the number of cars and days stuck in the last week of July has reduced significantly. Now it is not 30-40 days, it has come down to 3 days. Some vehicles enter Bangladesh on the day of entry. As a result, there has been an incredible speed in the import of goods; Relief has returned to trade. C&F businessman Khairuzzaman said that the West Bengal government has eased the goods transportation system and the importers are relieved. Goods are being transported quickly. Benapole C&F Staff Association Vice President Kamal Hossain said that the businessmen of both countries are happy with such an initiative of the West Bengal government. However, the service charge per truck is 10,000 rupees and the truck carriage charge is 5,000 rupees. If this charge is reduced a little, the traders will benefit more. Petrapol Clearing Agent Staff Welfare Association Secretary Karthik Chakraborty said that now the cars are reaching Bangladesh within two to three days as fake entries have been stopped. The amount of work in this port will also increase in the coming days. Customs officials believe that the enthusiasm of traders from different parts of the country will increase to do export trade. Benapole Port Deputy Director (Traffic) Mamun Kabir Tarafdar said that due to the introduction of 'online slot booking system' across the country, the import of goods has been delayed. With the efforts of the governments of the two countries, this new order of the Indian state government has accelerated the import trade of Petrapole, and Benapole has also accelerated. We are optimistic that import-export trade will be more dynamic, traders will be more interested in using Petrapol-Benapol port. #