Exports of chemical or dangerous goods are being hampered due to a lack of minimum facilities in all inland container depots (ICDs) of the country, according to exporters. 

Even after 10 months of a major fire at BM Container Depot in Sitakunda last June, none of the depots have been able to gain the qualifications for handling chemical or dangerous goods.

Customs officials said depots have been modified several times for handling dangerous cargo but none have been able to attain the minimum capacity.

According to international laws, including "The Dangerous Cargo Act-1953" and "The International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code", the depots should have separate entry and exit gates as well as separate sheds for handling these products.

Similarly, other conditions prescribed by the fire service have to be followed to deal with unwanted accidents.

However, no depot has been following those in handling dangerous cargo. After the fire last year, all the depots refrained from handling such cargo.

Then, at the request of exporters, Chittagong Container Transportation Company Limited (CCTCL) started handling the cargo.

But since they did not have the minimum safety standards, the Chattogram customs authority in February barred them from doing so.

In April, the customs authority gave a temporary permit to Eastern Logistic Limited, one of the 18 ICDs, to handle dangerous goods at the request of exporters.

Eastern Logistics, like the CCTCL, does not have the capacity to handle these products but they have been temporarily allowed for promoting exports, according to customs officials.

The National Board of Revenue (NBR) is formulating a policy on handling such goods and once it is available, the customs authorities are expected to enforce it.

However, the NBR officials could not say how long it will take to formulate the policy.

Bikash Kanti Das, head of business at Samuda Chemical, said: "Eastern Logistics, like the CCTCL, does not have dangerous goods handling capability."

"As a result, we now load these products in containers from our factory and send them to the depot. Following this process, it will not be possible to export the product within the stipulated time," he said.

Samuda Chemical, a subsidiary of Chattogram's TK Group, is one of the country's biggest exporters of hydrogen peroxide.

He said production had to be kept suspended for most of the time.

Several exporters said chemical products could be handled by all the depots before the BM Container Depot accident. But two months after the accident, shipping companies and all the depots showed reluctance to transport these goods.

At least Tk 5 crore to Tk 7 crore has to be spent to implement the conditions of dangerous goods handling as per international law, said Nurul Qayyum Khan, president of Bangladesh Inland Container Depot Association.

"As a result, no depot is interested in investing so much money at this time," he said.

Though the conditions have been relaxed and a depot has been allowed to handle it, through this alone, it will become difficult to ship goods on time, he added.

"Our eyes have actually been opened after the BM Container Depot accident. Everyone is alert now. The NBR is trying to make a policy in this regard. Hopefully everything will come under a system then," he added.

Nazmun Nahar, second secretary (export and bond) to the NBR, told this correspondent of The Daily Star, "A committee is working to formulate a policy on handling dangerous goods and all types of chemical products."

"It will take another month to get their report. After that, it will be scrutinised and the policy approval and implementation process will be started," she said.

However, it is not possible to say how soon that will be possible, she added.

According to Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau, chemical goods exports have decreased by 28 per cent in fiscal year 2022-23 from that in fiscal year 2021-22.

In the first nine months (July to March) of FY 2022-23, $226.81 million worth of the goods were exported whereas it was $282.1 million in the same period of FY 2021-22.