The National Board of Revenue has allowed the reuse of import containers for export by investors in export processing zones to reduce time and cost of export.

The NBR’s Customs Department issued the standard operating procedures for container reuse for EPZ companies on November 5.

Officials said that the NBR made the decision to facilitate foreign direct investment at the EPZs through reducing time and cost of export from the zones.

Investors had also been demanding the permission to reuse the same containers used for import of raw materials for export purpose, they said.

Exporters at the EPZs usually import raw materials under the bonded warehouse facility to produce finished goods meant for export and the import items transported by the containers are directly released at the EPZs.

Before the reuse benefit was given, shipping agents or freight forwarders used to bring the empty containers back to the ports or container freight stations or other designated depots located mainly in Chattogram.

EPZ investors would then bring the empty containers to the EPZs to load the export goods and send them to the ports for shipment.

The whole process would require additional time and incur extra cost to complete the export procedures.

Japanese EPZ investors had been requesting the NBR to allow reuse of import containers for export.

The revenue board has also been convinced that there should be a provision for reuse of containers to ease doing business.

According to the SOP, factories at the EPZs will have to place shipping orders online for full container load and less than container load for carrying export goods.

They will also have to apply two working days in advance to the relevant customs authorities along with the sales contract, export order, letter of credit and export permit issued by the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, it said.

A customs officer will conduct physical examination during the loading of export goods onto containers and will seal the containers with electronic seal along with the GPS tracking system.

The officer, however, will allow the use of the existing bullet seal until the electronic seal and GPS tracking system are not introduced in the country, it added.

The container reuse facility will be applicable for transporting export goods by other exporters within the EPZs if the first exporter who places the online order for containers fails to export on time.

The customs officer will issue an out-pass for the container and maintain a separate register for reused containers.

In the out-pass, the name and address of the factory, name and address of buyers, purchase order or LCs number, invoice, value, quantity, description of export goods, export number, container and seal number and related data must be included.

Violation of the SOP will be a punishable offence under the Customs Act-1969, it said.

Customs procedures of the export activities will be completed at the Dhaka and Chattogram customs houses.

A committee comprised of representatives of the NBR, the BEPZA, Customs House Chattogram and Chattogram Bond Commissionerate also recommended the reuse of containers to be allowed.

There are now a total of 475 factories at eight EPZs across the country.