10 containers missing from Ctg Port

Ten containers have gone missing from Chittagong Port over two years, even though at least 24 approvals are required to clear a single container.

Importers are in difficulty as a result, and questions are being raised about the port’s international standards. Meanwhile, businessmen have to go to court to obtain compensation when goods go missing. Police believe a large syndicate is behind this fraud.

At the beginning of this year, Customs House wrote to the port requesting the status of 250 containers whose delivery was suspended. A reply was received almost six months later, stating that 88 of those containers had been cleared and 70 were transferred to private depots.

However, the port claimed around 40 consignments were due to accounting errors.

Recently, Gazipur’s Goldstar Garments brought in goods worth nearly 20 million taka in one container, which has gone completely untraced.

Goldstar Garments’ representative Hafizur Rahman said that after completing all the necessary procedures for the container’s delivery including the shipping bill and port bill and obtaining a special slip, they went to collect the container but could not find it.

There are more such incidents. In 2025, Shah Amanat Trading purchased cloth worth 8.5 million taka at auction. They also paid over ten million taka, including duties and port charges.

However, when they went to collect the goods, the company could not locate the container. Nearly a year and a half has passed, but the matter remains unresolved and has now reached the courts.

Shah Amanat Trading’s proprietor Selim Reza said that despite having deposited the money for 19 months, he has still not received the goods, nor has he got his money back. He said the court has now issued a rule, which he has submitted to customs.

At least 24 approvals are required to clear a single container. Customs says responsibility for handing over imported goods lies with the port. However, no one from the port was willing to comment on the matter.

Chittagong Customs House spokesperson Sharif Mohammad Al Amin said that customs and the port work systematically in stages, with checking, re-checking, and intensive checking carried out but added that wrongdoers, too, do not sit idle.

Police believe a large syndicate may be behind the disappearance of containers and goods.
CMP’s Deputy Commissioner of Police (Port) Amirul Islam said they are conducting an intensive investigation into who bears responsibility for this, and that their efforts to bring everyone under the law continue. In one case related to this kind of fraud, police arrested two employees of two C&F firms last Monday.