Nakugaon Reflects Pandemic’s Heavy Toll on Trade with India

Revenue for state coffers through Nakugaon, in the northern bordering district of Sherpur, was severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, with only a fraction of the level of international trade activity at the land port witnessed until late March.

It is when the lockdowns enforced in both India and Bangladesh in reaction to the pandemic begin to take place, while the move to halt all trade through land ports came first from the Indian side.

As the first and most devastating blow to revenue generation, Sanjay Sarkar, customs inspector at Nakugaon Land Port, said that all trade operations at the port stayed completely suspended from March 19 to May 30-almost a quarter of the 2019-20 fiscal year.

Trade through some other land ports, such as Akhaura and Benapole, which were also suspended at the end of March, could be resumed earlier, either officially or informally.

In Nakungaon, trade resumed in June, but as with so many other activities that had been disrupted during the pandemic, only on a limited scale. And since then, it's not been able to pick up a number at all.

It meant the revenue collected from the port in 2019-20, through tariffs on imports and other taxes, amounted to a miserly Tk 1.96 crore. Sanjay Sarkar said 48,685 MT of stones, 99 MT of coal and 12 MT of ginger were the items that entered the country through this land port during the fiscal that ended June 30. (MT=metric tonnes).

Overall trade between India and Bangladesh took a big hit from the pandemic. According to Bangladesh Bank data, the trade figure between the two countries for April and May ($421 million) amounted to just one-fifth of the corresponding figure from the same period last year.

The administrative officer of Nakugaon land port Ekramul Haque stated that the port's import-export operations had been halted for around 3 months owing to coronavirus.

"The traders could not import stones at that time. That's why revenue has declined a lot, "Ekramul said.

If the pandemic had been stopped, sales should have risen by at least Tk 60 lakh, he predicts.

Moreover, according to Ekramul, revenues from the port have decreased as a result of India's suspension of coal exports.

Not only has the revenue declined, but the local staff of the land port also became unemployed. After the Eid-ul-Azha holiday, import-export activities again resumed on a limited scale through Nakugaon land port from August 10. But the situation is far from bustling.

Akhter Hossain, a trader and member of Nakugaon Land Port Import-Export Association, said that now a small quantity of stone has been imported from India in compliance with the health rules. Once the Corona situation is brought under control, he believes business will rebound strongly.

In the past, he said, coal was shipped from this land terminal. Until this year's suspension due to "external circumstances" (Covid-19), the cycle of importing coal was again ongoing, he stated.

"The traders would have benefited more if the coal could have been imported with the stone. A large number of revenue clouds have been deposited in the government treasury, "Akhter said.