Teknaf: Bangladesh has earned 690 million taka through the Teknaf land port, opposite Burma's Maungdaw, in the 2008 - 09 fiscal year from trade with Burma, according to an official report.
 
The revenue came from goods being imported and exported through Teknaf in the trade with Burma.
 
The report said most of the revenue came from goods imported from Burma, including sandals, shoes, timber, spices, and pickles.
 
However, the revenue failed to hit the target of 770 million taka, the amount earned from trade during the last fiscal year.
 
Sheikh Akram Hussain, head of the Teknaf land port, confessed that this year's revenue is less than last year's due to a reduction in the amount of fish being imported from Burma. This fiscal year the amount of fish imported is less than it was last year.
 
"Last year the land port earned 60 percent its tax from imported Burmese fish," he said.
 
The importing of Burmese fish to Bangladesh went down this fiscal year after some dishonest businessmen imported fish contaminated with formalin last year. After the formalin scare, Bangladeshis reduced their consumption of fish from Burma.
 
Bangladesh authorities issue a yearly report on revenue earned from the Teknaf land port, but the Burmese military has never publicly disclosed how much it earns from trade with Bangladesh through the Maungdaw land port.