Teknaf, Bangladesh: Teknaf Customs earned a record revenue of over 694.5 million taka from July 2010 to March 2011 from Burma-Bangladesh border trade, the first nine months of the fiscal year 2010-11, despite many problems faced in Teknaf Land Port, said a customs officer in Teknaf recently.
Bangladesh's fiscal year is from July 2010 to June 2011. The National Board of Revenue (NBR) of Teknaf had targeted to earn over 744.27 million taka revenue from the Teknaf Land Port in the first nine months from July to March for the 2010-11 fiscal. Therefore, only Taka over 49.70 million is needed to meet the target revenue, according to authorities of Teknaf Land Port.
“However, the Teknaf customs officer estimated to earn over 62 million per month taka from Teknaf Land Port. But, in the first six months of 2010-2011 fiscal year, the customs of Teknaf Land Port earned Taka 478,160,792 as revenue.”
But in January, February and March of 2011, the customs earned 276,460,807 taka from the Land Port, and for the remaining three months (April, May, and June), the NRB customs of Teknaf had estimated to earn 44,211,227 taka as revenue.
Bangladesh earns a lot of revenue from fish imports from Burma. Bangladesh exports plastic, Shutali, and Halim seeds as new items to Burma.
Teknaf border trade began operations on September 5, 1995. At that time, the import of goods from Burma was higher than exports. But at present the difference between exports and imports is minimal.
The Teknaf Land Port is likely to see the dawn of a new era for Bangladesh’s economy through the boosting of two-way trade between Bangladesh and Burma, according to officials.
“Once fully developed, the land port is expected to allow Bangladesh to access Burma's huge natural resources. The government has already intensified its efforts to develop the country's existing land ports, including Teknaf.”
“Bangladesh should try to reap trade and economic benefits through improving relations with Burma, and obviously, Teknaf Land Port can be an important vehicle in shoring up the bilateral trade between the two neighboring countries. The land port will help earn significant revenues for the government.”
Officials said the land port may help jack up national incomes through increased trade and stem cross-border smuggling.
There are 13 land ports in the country. Benapole is the largest, followed by Teknaf.
The Teknaf land port is the second among the country's 12 land ports being handed over to the private operators for a period of 25 years, official sources said.
