Many of the donor agencies, international NGOs and multinational companies working in Bangladesh, have used thousands of vehicles brought under the government’s duty-free scheme in violation of the rules for use, the Dhaka Tribune has found.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the leading agency for registering the duty-free vehicles with yellow number plates, has failed to trace over 3,400 vehicles that included costly utility automobiles such as Nissan Pajero and Land Cruisers and motorcycles registered with special serial numbers for the donor agencies, causing huge revenue loss to the state.
At present, duty-free import of one Pajero utility vehicle exempts at least Tk4 crore. According to the rules, the vehicles were given registration for specific durations, under the condition that the organisation must re-register them for extended use. In case of handover to any individual, they must have clearance from the National Board of Revenue, ensuring payment of the duties exempted deducting the depreciation in line with the NBR rule.
For donor-funded projects, the authorities must handover the vehicles to the respective ministries after the completion of the projects.
But a very small percentage of the vehicles registered with specialised sumbers since 1972 were handed over or sold out in line with the conditions.
For example, Saipem S.p.A, an Italian oil and gas contractor, imported 174 costly vehicles such as 4,000 cc Prime Mover, Land Cruiser, Nissan Patrol, Toyota Pickup, FIAT Truck, microbus and other vehicles under the duty-free facility and registered with the BRTA with yellow plate between 1989 and 1990. But the vehicles were not registered yet.
The Dhaka Tribune reporter tried to trace the office of Saipem S.p.A at Road no 30, Park Road in Baridhara, following BRTA’s ledger, mainly to get its version. But it was found that the house was rented to an official of the Indian High Commission.
Failing to track the vehicles for re-registration or fitness renewal, the BRTA cancelled the registrations of some vehicles. The authority has also stopped issuing registration numbers with “SAS” and “Jha” serials.
BRTA records show that it has registered at least 4,710 vehicles between 1972 and 1994.
Examining 14 registration ledgers, this correspondent counted that 1,281 vehicles were either handed over properly or saw cancellation of registration. The remaining 3,410 vehicles are still traceless.
“We have issued letters several times to the organisations or agencies to report us on the status of the vehicles with SAS and Jha plates. We are yet to get any response from them. We have cancelled the registration of many vehicles,” Rafiqul Haque Talukder, BRTA director (engineering), told the Dhaka Tribune. “This is really frustrating,” he said.
Mahbub-e-Rabbani, a deputy director of BRTA, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “May be the vehicles registered in 1970s have become scrap. But the issue is foreigners’ disobedience towards local laws. As law abiding citizens in their countries, they were supposed to abide by our laws.”
Humayun Rashid Khalifa, a former BRTA director (engineering), who first initiated the process to trace the vehicles, told the Dhaka Tribune that: “What has happened to the vehicles is that the foreigners have sold the vehicles to the local people without informing the NBR or the BRTA. And the local buyers have been using those without paying the duties exempted.”
Again, he said, police had been very generous to not check the papers of the vehicles, fearing that those must belong to foreigners or powerful people.
