Tripura: Meeting held to discuss Centre’s port restriction on Bangladeshi goods

Two days after the Central government imposed port restrictions on the import of certain goods from Bangladesh to India, a vital meeting was held at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) in Agartala on Monday to discuss the implementation of the curb.

Tripura’s Industries and Commerce Department’s Director Shailesh Kumar Yadav held a meeting at the ICP in Agartala, along India-Bangladesh border, and discussed about the notification of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) imposing port restrictions on the import of certain goods such as readymade garments, processed food items etc., from Bangladesh to India.

A senior ICP official said that the discussion focused on operational and procedural concerns following the DGFT order issued Saturday (May 17).

Yadav informed the meeting that essential items like fish, LPG, stone chips and edible oil remain unaffected in view of the DGFT notification. Trade representatives welcomed the move as a measure of national interest and committed to compliance.

Officials from the Customs Department, the Border Security Force, Immigration and representatives of the traders' associations were present at the meeting. The notification of the DGFT under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry had said that import of all kinds of ready-made garments from Bangladesh shall not be allowed from any land port, however, it is allowed only through Nhava Sheva and Kolkata seaports.

It had said that import of fruit and fruit flavoured and carbonated drinks, processed food items, cotton and cotton yarn waste, plastic and PVC finished goods, except pigments, dyes, plasticisers and granules that form input for own industries, and wooden furniture, shall not be allowed through any Land Customs Stations (LCSs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram and LCS Changrabandha and Fulbari in West Bengal.

The port restrictions do not apply to the import of fish, LPG, edible oil, and crushed stone from Bangladesh, the DGFT notification had said.

Tripura’s Industries and Commerce Minister Santana Chakma recently said that imports from Bangladesh into Tripura increased, but exports from the northeastern state of India to the neighbouring country substantially declined in recent years.

The Minister had said that Tripura imported various commodities worth Rs 636. 72 crore from Bangladesh in the 2022-23 financial year, and the volume increased to Rs 703.67 crore in 2023-24 and till February of the current fiscal (2024-25), it was Rs 625.14 crore.

She said that Tripura exported various items valued at Rs 121.37 crore in the 2022-23 financial year, Rs 12.31 crore in 2023-24 and Rs 50.07 crore till February of the outgoing fiscal (2024-25).

Chakma said that out of nine Land Customs Stations (LCSs) along the 856 km India-Bangladesh border with Tripura, eight are now functional, and trade as well as cross-border movement of people are taking place through these eight LCSs.

To boost trade, tourism and other economic activities, the Central government has earlier set up two Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) along the border in Akhaura along Agartala (in West Tripura district) and Srimantapur in Sepahijala district.

The multi-purpose ICPs were also set up in Meghalaya's Dawki-Tamabil and Assam's Sutarkandi-Sheola trading points. After the Petrapole (India)-Benapole (Bangladesh) ICP in West Bengal, the Agartala-Akhaura ICP is the second largest trading point along the India-Bangladesh border in terms of value of annual trade.