Expensive cars of former MPs are lying in the port, customs are indecisive
September 25, 20243 Mins Read

Jumbangla Desk: The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is yet to decide on the future of 42 vehicles brought to Chittagong port under duty free facility in MP quota. Among them, 15 more vehicles have arrived at the port. The market value of each of these cars brought from Japan in the name of 15 members of the 12th Parliament is Tk 10 to 12 crore.

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These cars of Toyota Land Cruiser model of Japan company have been arranged in the car shed of Chittagong port. They were supposed to be owned by members of parliament of the newly dissolved Twelfth Parliament. According to the 850 percent duty rate, the market value of each car is Tk 10 to 12 crore, but the members of Parliament would get the opportunity to own these cars worth only Tk 1 crore.

However, the customs authorities seized at least 42 imported cars immediately after the fall of the government on August 5. However, cricketer Shakib Al Hasan along with 7 members of Parliament redeemed the car in July. Another 15 vehicles were brought in the last shipment on September 14.

Secretary of Chittagong Port Authority, Mohammad Omar Farooq said, according to the rules, importers are given 30 days to clear the goods. If not redeemed within this period, the goods are handed over to the customs authorities. Then the customs auctioned the goods as per their rules.

He said that the same rules will be followed in the case of these expensive cars, he said, the names and numbers of MPs are written in each car. If they are not redeemed, they will soon be handed over to customs.

Meanwhile, various complications have arisen with these cars brought to the duty-free facility in the name of parliamentarians. Especially when the Parliament was in force, the process of importing these cars took place. Currently, since the Parliament has been dissolved, Chittagong Custom House is indecisive about delivering the car at the previous facility. In this situation, they wrote a letter to the National Board of Revenue last month to know about the future of the seized car.

However, the letter has not been answered yet. If any imported goods including vehicles are not cleared within 30 days, they are handed over to customs for auction sale by the port authority.

Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong Custom House. Saidul Islam said that due to the dissolution of parliament, a policy or legal decision will be taken whether the cars will be redeemed in the MP facility. Further action will be taken as per the instructions of NBR.

Actress Tarana Halim, Abdul Waheed of Mymensingh, Abul Kalam Azad of Jamalpur, S Al Mamun of Sitakunda, Chittagong, Mujibur Rahman of Banshkhali, SM Kamal Hossain of Khulna, Surendra Nath Chakraborty of Naogaon, Shah Sarwar Kabir of Gaibandhar, SAK of Brahmanbaria are the importers of the new consignment of cars. Ekramuzzaman, Sazzadul Hasan of Netrokona, Naser Shahriar Zahedi of Jhenaidah, Tauhiduzzaman of Jessore and Muhammad Sadiq of Sunamganj. The names of the other two are not known.

The valuable imported cars of 15 former MPs of the 12th National Parliament, which were broken by the student uprising, are now in the carshed of Chittagong port. If these cars are not delivered within the next month, they will be auctioned. However, legal complications have arisen over whether they can take delivery at all. Customs has also sent a letter to the policy makers. Auctioneers fear that if these cars are not delivered soon or auctioned, they will eventually be sold as scraps.

Source and photo: Time News