No road tax paid in trial run as two sides yet to settle it
India has for the first time sent cargo from Kolkata to Tripura and Assam using Bangladesh’s Akhaura land port in Brahmanbaria.
Officials said this was an experiment.
All charges, except the one for using the roads, were collected by Bangladesh authorities.
The foreign affairs ministry informed India earlier this month that road fees would not be charged during the trial runs.
A vessel called MV Sejuti left Kolkata on July 14 and reached Chattogram seaport on July 21. Its cargo of lentils and rods were then loaded on four trailer trucks. The trailers carrying the goods reached Akhaura land port on Wednesday afternoon, land port officials said. The goods were then loaded into Indian trailers that carried them further inland.
Harunur Rashid, revenue officer at Akhaura customs station, told The Daily Star that Chattogram Customs House was in charge of collecting the fees.
Governments of the two countries have yet to decide how much will be paid for road use. “So, we have not collected the road tax from them,” said Harunur.
Joydeep Mukherjee, superintendent of Agartala Customs, told reporters from both countries at No Man’s Land that Tripura Chief Minister Biplob Kumar Dev formally received the goods-laden trailers from Agartala port around 9:00 am on Thursday.
Aktar Hossain, owner of Adnan Trade International in Bangladesh, which transported the goods in Bangladesh, said two trailers carried 49.83 tonnes of TMT bars and the other two 53.25 tonnes of lentils.
He added that the goods were shipped by Dercel Logistics LTD of India and Mango Line Limited of Bangladesh.
Since 2016, 17 Indian cargoes have been transported using the Chattogram-Akhaura route. Bangladesh started giving transit to India in June 2016.
In 2011, India used the Ashuganj river port to carry goods for the construction of the Palatana power plant in Tripura through the Akhaura. India built diversion roads along 36 bridges and culverts in three upazilas of Brahmanbaria to carry these heavy goods.
