News / Customs computer glitch at Chittagong hobbles port operations

Chittagong Port. Photo: Moheen Reeyad, Wikipedia

Movements in and out of Chittagong are facing extreme delays after customs systems crashed following a software update last week.

The update, to the port’s online system, saw a malfunction preventing customs officials and agents accessing and submitting data.

Syed Mohammad Arif, chair of the Bangladesh Shipping Agents’ Association, told The Loadstar: “The software glitch has been disrupting trades for the past couple of days.

“Without completing customs formalities, no one is able to take delivery of containerised or bulk cargo. Ships are also forming queues at the outer anchorage of the port, due to the delay in approving documents.”

As of this morning, six vessels were at the outer anchorage, with 11 loading and unloading boxes at the port jetties.

Submissions of daily import bills into the system since Sunday have almost halved, dropping by 800 against a daily average of 2,000, and a backlog of “at least” 5,000 import bills has built up with no sign of when the glitch will be remedied.

Customs agents association C&F’s general secretary, Quazi Mahmud Imam, told The Loadstar: “We’ve written a letter to the customs commissioner saying unless the technical glitch is fixed today, we will rethink if we go to the customs house from Sunday.”

If C&F follows through with its threat to abandon work, the situation will only worsen for those looking to see their import boxes released, and there are suggestions the issue could rumble on at least into next week.

Mr Arif added that amid the chaos, importers were facing demurrage costs and Bangladesh’s factories were “drying up” as they awaited stock.

He added” “I will meet the customs commissioner next week seeking an immediate solution. I will request that he move to create a back-up server so work can be continued in case of emergency.”

Issues at the port follow the failure of all four of the explosive detection scanners at the country’s main airfreight gateway, Dhaka Airport, stranding 250 tonnes of cargo.

Two of Dhaka’s scanners are near-permanently out of action, while at midnight yesterday, another was repaired alongside efforts to fix the fourth. “Excessive pressure” was said to have caused the failures.