Following reports of owners of inland container depots (ICDs), which handle most of Bangladesh’s outbound cargoes, raising charges thereby making exports costlier, garment makers have, reportedly, requested the country’s National Board of Revenue or NBR to allow business groups, warehouse owners and forwarders to set up container freight station (CFS) for outbound trade.
According to reports, the apex garment makers’ body of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) wrote a letter to the NBR in this direction recently while also calling for incorporation of a provision pertaining to setting up of export-CFS into the draft private ICD policy.
The President of the trade body, Faruque Hassan, placed the demand amidst an ongoing rift between users and owners of the country’s 19 ICDs after the ICDs, reportedly, hiked charges citing hike of fuel oils even as the BGMEA President, reportedly, argued that in many countries forwarders and warehousing companies have CFSs according to their requirement.
