Ctg Customs fails to recover Tk 3700 cr from Petrobangla

Mahfuja Mukul: Chittagong Customs owes Tk 3,700 crore revenue to the government agency Petrobangla in the fiscal year 2021-22. The customs authority is worried about this huge amount of unpaid revenue to the government agency. This revenue has been arrears on LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) imports for the last six months.
According to Chittagong Customs, in the fiscal year 2021-22, import duty of more than 3 thousand 884 crore rupees has been owed to seven public and private institutions. However, Chittagong Customs House collected a total revenue of Tk 59 thousand 256 crores in the current financial year. Which is 15 percent more than the revenue collected in the previous fiscal year 2020-2021.
In this regard, Commissioner of Chittagong Customs House. Fakhrul Alam told that in the fiscal year 2021-2022, the revenue of Tk 59 thousand 256 crore has been collected through Chittagong Customs House. He commented that this achievement has been possible due to the tireless efforts of the officers and employees of Chittagong Customs at all levels with the cooperation of the Revenue Board.
Md. Fakhrul Alam said that the revenue of Chittagong Customs is about one-eighth of the last fiscal year’s budget. The revenue target of Chittagong Customs for the fiscal year 2021-22 was more than Tk 64 thousand crore. Although the target was not met in the post-Covid situation, the revenue has been collected about Tk 7,680 crore more than the previous fiscal year (2020-21).
Stating that Petrobangla has not given any revenue in the last six months by importing LNG, Fakhrul Alam said, according to the rules, the product should be exempted by the import duty. However, as a government essential fuel, LNG has been given the opportunity to be released by keeping the import duty arrears. In these six months, more than Tk 3,699 crores of revenue have been owed to Petrobangla. Letter after letter has been sent to Petrobangla to collect this outstanding revenue. There have been several meetings in the ministry. But still they have not paid the due revenue.
According to the information of Chittagong Customs, a total revenue of Tk 59 thousand 256 crore has been collected in the fiscal year 2021-22. However, the revenue collection target of Chittagong Customs in the current financial year was Tk 64 thousand 75 crores. In the previous fiscal year (2020-21), the revenue was Tk 51 thousand 576 crores. As a result, in the financial year 2021-22, the cash revenue collection is Tk 4 thousand 819 crores less than the target, but a 15 percent growth has been achieved compared to the previous financial year.
However, there is still a revenue of Tk 3,884,430,000 owed to seven public and private institutions. Almost all the revenue owed is to the energy sector institutions. If these arrears could be collected, the growth would have been 22.42 percent, said customs sources.
According to the information, dues of Tk 3,699 crore 28 lakh have been owed to Petrobangla on LNG import in the fiscal year 2021-22 that ended on Thursday (June 30). In addition, the revenue owed to Padma Oil Company Limited is Tk 116 crore 73 lakh, to Meghna Petroleum Limited Tk 28 crore 40 lakh, Standard Asiatic Oil Company Limited (SAOCL) is owed Tk 57 lakh.
At the same time, Tk 5 crore 11 lakh is owed to the private company Summit LNG Limited and Tk 13 lakh to Accelerate Energy for the import of fuel materials. Bangladesh Police, another government institution, has arrears of import duty of Tk 34 crore 21 lakh. In total, Tk 3 thousand 884 crore 43 lakh are owed to seven institutions.
Several calls to Petrobangla’s General Manager (Finance) Farooq Ahmed’s mobile phone to discuss the pending revenue of customs did not pick up.