STAFF CORRESPONDENT,
Ctg
All customs houses across the country will remain open for import and export activities this weekend – today and tomorrow.
The customs policy wing of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) yesterday issued directives to the customs houses in Chattogram, Dhaka, Benapole, Mongla, Customs House ICD and Pangaon in this regard.
The directive said the release of consignments had been somewhat disrupted recently due disrputions in the server that handles import-export data and customs records.
“In this situation, in order to keep the country’s import-export trade uninterrupted, it is requested to take necessary steps to keep import-export related activities running during the weekly holiday on July 11-12, 2025,” reads the circular.
“Online customs clearance procedures are taking longer than usual due to server complications. Authorities hope that the pending files will be cleared within these two days,” Mohammad Saidul Islam, deputy commissioner and spokesperson of the Custom House, Chattogram, told The Daily Star yesterday.
According to customs agents and importers, the volume of work has dropped by 50–60 percent since the server issues began.
“Today, there was no work at all till 2:30pm,” Golam Rabbani Riggan, former joint secretary of the Chattogram Customs Agents Association, said yesterday.
“This problem has been happening for years, but the problem has worsened in recent months. Earlier, we could manage with intermittent outages; now the entire system collapses,” he added.
Importers alleged that despite repeated pleas, the National Board of Revenue (NBR) has failed to provide a sustainable solution, except vague assurances about a new server.
The customs house uses ASYCUDA World, an automated system for customs data processing, which was introduced in 2013, replacing the earlier ASYCUDA++ version. While the system is designed to handle end-to-end online submissions, performance lags and breakdowns have become increasingly frequent.
On average, the Chattogram customs processes around 3,500 to 4,000 bills of entry per day. When the system stalls, even the simplest clearance task takes five times longer than usual, traders complain.
“We’ve been suffering due to this server problem for a long time. On Wednesday, work remained suspended for more than four hours,” Anamul Haque, managing director of Asha Trades, said.