PASSENGER, CARGO MOVEMENT
BTC for 3rd country provision in draft deal with India
Bangladesh Tariff Commission has expressed its reservation about a provision which excludes transportation from any third country in a draft agreement on passenger and
cargo vehicles movement between India and Bangladesh.
India has placed the latest draft agreement before the foreign ministry of Bangladesh in May.
The BTC also suggested that the government should revive the core committee on transit to scrutinise the draft agreement on the regulation of passenger and cargo vehicular traffic between Bangladesh and India and determine charges and fees to be levied on movement of vehicles under the deal, commerce ministry officials said.
They said a committee responsible to deal with transit issues under the foreign ministry was working on the draft.
India has long been persuading Bangladesh to
sign the agreement facilitating passenger vehicles, cargo vehicles and personal vehicles movement between the two countries, they said.
In the last meeting of joint working group on trade held in June 13-14 in New Delhi, India wanted to know the status of the draft of the agreement.
Bangladesh informed the meeting that the draft was under scrutiny.
Ministries related to the proposed agreement are not in favour of signing the agreement without a provision of vehicles transportation to and from third countries like Nepal and Bhutan in the agreement, the officials said adding that they were in favour of a multi-modal and regional transit agreement.
The communication ministry suggested a revival of the core committee on transit which was formed in December 2010 headed by former BTC chairman Mujibur Rahman. The committee at the end of 2011 submitted its report to the government.
‘In the last week of June, we sent our observations to the ministry. We suggested revival of the core committee on transit,’ BTC member Mostafa Abid Khan told New Age on Sunday.
‘We also observed that inclusion of third country provision in such agreement is important,’ he said.
The draft agreement proposed setting up a joint working group to determine types and sizes of vehicles, routes, entry and exit points, charges and fees.
The working group will also finalise authorised operators for operating vehicles.
Currently, there are bus services between Dhaka-Kolkata and Dhaka-Agartala under motor vehicle passenger traffic deal between the two countries.
However, India has been pleading strongly for more cross-border bus routes, especially from its north-eastern states, and more entry and exit routes between the two countries for private vehicles, commerce ministry officials said.
Under the proposed agreement, cargo vehicles meaning trucks, trailers, etc., could carry containerised cargo between the two countries, facilitating transportation of goods to India’s eastern states.
Currently, cargo trucks are allowed to enter 200 metres into each other’s territories at Benapole and Petrapole land customs stations under standard operating procedures.
-With New Age input
