INTERNATIONAL TRADE
ASYCUDA World software to ensure hassle-free services: Muhith
Finance minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith on Sunday said the government was moving forward to a fully paperless system regarding international trade through the introduction of ASYCUDA World software with a view to ensuring transparency and accountability in the sector.
‘Through introducing ASYCUDA World software in customs procedures, I hope it will make a strong move towards paperless e-governance system in the country,’ he said at a mobilisation seminar on the deployment of ASYCUDA World and single window in Bangladesh customs at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the city.
He said that ASYCUDA would ensure not only revenue collection but also hassle-free services for stakeholders, including passage of goods, which is also very important.
The National Board of Revenue organised the seminar in the wake of introducing ASYCUDA World, the automated system for customs data designed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development at the Chittagong Customs House and Kamalapur Inland Container Depot, Dhaka from July 1 on a pilot basis.
NBR officials said that the system would be extended to other customs houses and major land customs stations in phases for establishing interconnectivity among the stations.
They expected that with the introduction of the software, customs procedures would become mostly paperless with minimum human intervention and end hassle for exporters and importers, reduce transaction cost and time in the international trades and check duty evasion.
The ASUCUDA World software will have a system by which customs offices will also get letters of credit from the Bangladesh Bank online.
Shipping minister Shahjahan Khan said with the introduction of ASYCUDA World, all the stakeholders, including shipping agents, clearance and forwarding agents and freight forwarders agents, would be benefited with the expansion of hassle-free trade and commerce.
NBR chairman Ghulam Hussain said the system would lower the transaction cost and time, increase efficiency, transparency and ensure better data management in international trade.
He said that the stakeholders, especially the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, would have to provide necessary information like utilisation permission to the customs houses for better results.
Syed Mushfequr Rahman, national project manager of the ASYCUDA World project, said that from the July 1 exporters would be able to submit their bill of export and shipping agents will be able to submit cargo manifest online.
After successful completion of piloting, importers will also be able to submit their bills of entry online from August, he said, adding that in the future the customs houses will be transformed as single window of services.
Civil aviation and tourism minister Faruk Khan, NBR member (customs, bond, export and IT) Md Nasir Uddin, regional coordinator for Asia and Pacific ASYCUDA Programme of UNCTAD Renaud Massenet, customs adviser to UNCTAD David Wright, among others, spoke at the seminar.
-With New Age input
