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India is now free to use two seaports of Bangladesh---one at Chattogram and the other at Mongla--- to transship goods and also transit the same to and from its landlocked northeastern states. The National Board of Revenue (NBR), according to a report published in this paper, issued a 'permanent' order to this effect on Monday last, detailing all the procedures and fees to apply for the transportation of goods to and from the landlocked northeastern states of India. India should reciprocate on this issue.
Transportation of goods from the Indian mainland to the northeastern states involves a long time and huge cost because of the distance. Bangladesh's next-door neighbour for long has been aspiring to use the Bangladesh seaports to cut both cost and time. Against this background, the two countries in April 2018 penned an agreement titled, 'Agreement on the Use of Chattogram and Mongla ports for Movement of Goods to and from India. An instrument on Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on transit and transhipment was also signed in 2019. The Transit and Transshipment Rules were issued later in 2021. Since then, India has used the Bangladesh ports to transship goods at least on four occasions on a trial basis. And finally, the NBR issued the order on April 24 facilitating the use of the two ports by India under a permanent arrangement.
Under the latest NBR order, fees that were set in 2020 for experimental run have remained almost unchanged barring the 15 per cent VAT imposed on all services rendered by Bangladesh agencies.
The SOP and other necessary orders have tried to ensure the security and safety of goods to be transshipped and transited. It also has addressed the security issues concerning Bangladesh.
Undoubtedly, India will be extremely happy because of the latest NBR order since the latter would make things easy for it to transport goods at low costs and in a short time to its northeastern states. The relations between the two neighbours, hopefully, would get yet another boost and open up new areas of cooperation.
However, a few questions might crop up in the minds of many here following the latest Bangladesh move. The first and foremost will be: what Bangladesh would get in return?
Bangladeshi traders have a soured feeling as far as trade relations with India are concerned. Their principal allegation is that the neighbour has offered notable trade concessions in recent years, but non-tariff and para-tariff barriers have made things difficult for Bangladeshi goods to enter its market. However, such barriers are usually put up by the Indian government to 'protect' the interests of domestic producers.
Besides trade, there are some other unresolved issues, sharing of Teesta waters being at the top.
India has got what it wanted. It is now for Bangladesh to play its part to get the due and reap the most out of the permanent transit and transhipment deal. Bangladesh is yet to get access to Nepal and Bhutan through Indian land. Once allowed to use the Indian corridor, two landlocked countries will also get uninterrupted access to Bangladesh seaports which would make their external trade easier.
Besides, Bangladesh should also try to employ the maximum number of its transports, ships and vessels in the transportation of goods under the transit and transhipment facility granted to India.
When the issue of transhipment and transit of Indian goods first came, concerns were expressed about the capacity of Bangladeshi ports and other infrastructures, including roads and highways, to handle those. It was not possible to see the true impact during the trial runs that were very limited in nature. The problems will be visible only when the transhipment and transit of goods start in full gear. Everything will depend on the extent of use of the ports and roads by India and Bangladesh's capacity to address the problems. Let's wait and see what happens next.