Bangladeshi Sona Masjid land port

The government earned Tk 89.46 crore in revenue through Sonamasjid land port, the country's second largest one, in the first six months of the current fiscal ( 2009-2010) against the target of Tk 170.89 crore. Less imports and other problems caused such decline in the revenue income. "We experienced a drop in imports during July- December," said Fazlul Haque, assistant commissioner of Sonamasjid Customs. However, the port surpassed the 2008-09 revenue target by earning Tk 230. 80 crore. Sonamasjid, which started as a LC station in 1991 , was upgraded to a full-fledged land port in 2006 under private management. Panama Port Link Limited is the company that has been assigned for its handling for a span of 25 years. Meanwhile, some businessmen alleged that following pre-inspection of the imported items and price fixing by India, the port customs officials force the importers to bear the burden of extra tariff, which ultimately harmed their business interest. "Now, many importers opted for using Hili land port of Dinajpur to do business", a trader said. Recently, in protest of extortion by Sramik Samonnoy Committee, a workers organisation, clearing and forwarding agents at Sonamasjid enforced a three-day strike. There are allegations that these workers used to slap tolls on each of the trucks laden with goods imported from India. Pointing their fingers at internal conflicts among owners of the private leasing company, some businessmen said such feud disrupted the import- export trade. A businessman preferring anonymity said a local Awami League leader now controls the port activities which also led to their loss of interest in trading through Sonamasjid. Ruhul Amin, former president of Sonamasjid land port C&F agents association, said earlier 200-250 trucks from the neighbouring country entered Sonamasjid every day on an average, but now the number of trucks does not cross 70. Shamiul Haque Liton, the incumbent president, suggesting addressing the problems the land port now faces in the interest of tapping Bangladesh's bright prospect of border trade with India.