Car importers say they incurred a loss of around Tk5 crore in the last one month for not unloading cars at Mongla port because of the ongoing blockade and frequent general strikes.
Some 4,500 reconditioned cars are waiting to be unloaded at the port as the importers fear that the vehicles might be damaged in blockade violence while being taken to showrooms.
However, they had to bear miscellaneous expenses for keeping the cars at the port.
According to the customs duty rules, reconditioned cars imported from abroad have to be unloaded within 45 days as the failure to do so will authorise port officials to sell the vehicles at auction.
This has worried importers as the large number of cars, each priced at Tk20 lakh to Tk1.5 crore, still to be unloaded might be put up for auction. Around 200 importers have imported the cars.
Abdul Haque, owner of Haque Bay and the former president of Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers and Dealers Association, said he had as many as 1,000 imported cars stuck at the port and not a single one had yet been offloaded.
“Unloading the cars means I need to worry about having those damaged in possible street violence,” he said.
Assistant Traffic Manager of the port Mostafa Kamal said the rate of unloading vehicles had dropped by 35% amid the ongoing political turbulence.
Kamal also said the ship expected to reach the port today with 500 cars.
Captain Md Rafiqul Islam, owner of Sinhua Automobiles, said the loss for the failure to offload cars and take those to showrooms amounted to around Tk7,000 crore.
“On average, 100 cars could have been unloaded every day if the political situation was stable,” he said.
Director (traffic) of Mongla port Kazi Golam Moktader said the port authorities had nothing to do if importers did not have their cars unloaded.
He also said operations at the port were not affected by the strike or blockade.