14th Bangladesh–India Joint Group of Customs Meeting Held
22 August 2023
The Governments of Bangladesh and India held their 14th Bangladesh–India Joint Group of Customs (JGC) meeting on 21–22 August 2023 in New Delhi, India. Mr. Surjit Bhujabal, Member (Customs), Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, India and Mr. Md. Mahbubuzzaman, Member, Bangladesh National Board of Revenue, co-chaired the meeting.
The meeting discussed several matters of bilateral importance, including the opening of new land customs stations, easing port restrictions, development of road and rail infrastructure, pre-arrival exchange of customs data, and a bilateral agreement on customs cooperation. The Government of India also thanked Bangladesh for completing trial runs and issuing notification for operationalizing the Agreement on Use of Chattogram and Mongla Ports, as decided in the 13th JGC meeting. The meeting also initiated discussions on electronic connectivity of the respective transit modules of ACMP.
The press release noted several trade facilitation measures recently undertaken by India. These include the following: (i) enabling exports from Bangladesh to India by rail in closed containers, with customs clearance facility at any Inland Container Depot (ICD) (17 May 2022 circular); (ii) enabling export of cargo from ICDs in India to Bangladesh using inland waterways (9 September 2022 circular); (iii) enabling third country transshipment through India of Bangladesh’s containerized export cargo using Riverine and Land routes (14 September 2022 circular); and allowing transshipment of Bangladesh export cargo to third countries using Delhi Air Cargo (7 February 2023 circular).
JGC meetings are held annually to foster cooperation between both customs regimes by discussing relevant issues and cross-border trade facilitation. The meetings are vital in enhancing connectivity and developing trade infrastructure to promote smooth customs clearance at land borders. There are 62 Land Customs Stations (which include land border crossing points, railway stations and river banks/ports) along the India-Bangladesh Border in the States of West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram.
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