Mohammad Suman

Prices of basic commodities will remain stable in Chattogram during the month of Ramadan because of adequate stock and supply, said traders and a senior government official yesterday.

Lack of due diligence by the customs authorities in Chattogram has resulted in samples of imported goods allegedly being tampered with before testing to dodge taxes.

Customs detectives are yet to figure out the types of goods that were in the 22 consignments fraudsters made way with by stealing log-in credentials of revenue officials.

Crystal Gold, the vessel that ran aground at Chattogram's Parki Sea Beach two years ago during cyclone Mora, is still there threatening the environment.

The Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority (Bepza) has taken an initiative to reopen 11 factories and create around 10,000 jobs in Chattogram Export Processing Zone within a year.

Long delays in auctioning off goods brought in and abandoned by importers at the Chattogram Port are not only damaging a good portion of the items but also depriving the authorities and shipping agents of revenues.

Gas supply remained suspended in one-third area of port city for the third consecutive day yesterday, intensifying public distress and forcing many to buy food from restaurants.

The gas outage in a vast area of Chattogram continued for the second consecutive day yesterday, causing untold sufferings to the port city dwellers and partially disrupting industrial production and power generation.

Factories in Chattogram, which have long been operating at below capacity because of inadequate gas supplies, are now breathing a sigh of relief thanks to the availability of liquefied natural gas (LNG).

At least 295 consignments of goods have gone missing from a restricted area of the Chattogram port, say customs officials.

The Chattogram Custom House (CCH) has evidence that the seven Clearing and Forwarding agents, who have recently been found to be “involved” in a forgery, engaged in counterfeit activities for a total of 299 times between October 2013 and December 2018, NBR sources said.

The customs house of Chattogram is going to sue two firms—Grambangla Food Corporation and M/S N Islam Enterprise—on charges of money laundering in the name of goods import.

A gang consisting of clearing and forwarding (C&F) agents and importers had at least 4,000 consignments released from the Chattogram port through forgery over the last two years.

Revenue collection of the Custom House, Chattogram fell 23 percent short of the target in the first half of 2018-19, the biggest drop in six years.

Two members of the influential Maijbhandari family contesting the national polls in Chattogram-2 (Fatikchhari) may cause a split in the votes of supporters, according to locals.

More than 2,386,500 export containers got through Chittagong Custom House (CCH) without scanning in the last eight years, which

People of low-income group, who saved their hard-earned money with an NGO in Chattogram city for promised high returns, have become victims of alleged fraud as the organisation suddenly closed shop and its officials disappeared.

Pre-paid meters for household gas consumption have been saving gas by 20 percent in Chattogram city, and cost for consumers has also been coming down as they have been refraining from wasting the resources.

Despite seizing consignments of smuggled-in cigarettes at the port, Chattogram Customs House has been unable to track down the smugglers over the last couple of years as documents related to the import have either gone missing or they had been forged.

Officially, most bars and social clubs neither import nor purchase alcohol yet they log huge sales; restrictive law, high import tariff, bureaucratic nightmare encouraging smuggling; govt loses big, earning almost nothing out of this trade.