Imports through Benapole land port have declined as Bangladesh’s importers are grappling with opening of letters of credit amid the dollar market crisis and global economic slowdown.
This has also started impacting the government’s revenue collection.
In ten months (July-April) of the current fiscal year 2023-24, the revenue collection is Tk67.89 crore less than the target.
Officials said the revenue collection totalled  Tk5,213.11 crore during the period against a target of Tk5,281 crore.

In the first 10 months of the previous fiscal year (FY2022-23), a total of 17.55 lakh tonnes of goods were imported through Benapole port.
But during the same period of the current fiscal year (2023-24), the imports through this land port totalled around 14.43 lakh tonnes, which is 2.57 lakh tonnes less than that of the previous year.
Traders said that importers are not able to import due to the dollar crisis. They said the rising dollar costs against taka were still not under control.
If the crisis was not resolved quickly, the import volume might fall evenfurther and face a large revenue deficit at the end of the year, the people concerned feared. According to the customs sources, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) sets a monthly revenue target of a certain amount on goods imported from India.

But Benapole Customs has not been able to meet its revenue collection targets for the past few years as the market witnessed declining trends in imports.
Vice President of Benapole C&F Agent Association Kamal Uddin Shimul said commercial banks have reduced the number of LCs opening over the years, citing the dollar crisis.
However, traders said they were optimistic that by the end of the fiscal year, the business situation will come to normal.
Motiar Rahman, director of the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce, said that most of the importers are suffering due to the dollar crisis.
Because of the dollar crisis amid the global slowdown, banks are reluctant to open LCs.
Although there is a dollar rate fixed by the government, the banks are charging Tk125-128 against the greenback.