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CHAPTER VIII

GENERAL PROVISIONS AFFECTING CONVEYANCES

AT CUSTOMS-STATIONS

60. Power to depute officers of customs to board conveyances.- At

any time while a conveyance is in a customs-station or is proceeding towards

such station, the appropriate officer may depute one or more officers of customs

to board the conveyance, and every officer so deputed shall remain on board

such conveyance for such time as the appropriate officer may consider necessary.

61. Officer to be received and accommodation to be provided.-Whenever an officer of customs is so deputed to be on board any conveyance,

the person-in-charge shall be bound to receive him on board and to provide him

with suitable accommodation and adequate quantity of fresh water.

62. Officers powers of access, etc.- (1) Every officer deputed as

aforesaid shall have free access to every part of the conveyance and may-

(a) cause any goods to be marked before they are unloaded from

that conveyance;

(b) lock up, seal, mark or otherwise secure any goods carried in the

conveyance or any place or container in which they are carried;

or

(c) fasten down any hatchway or entrance to the hold.

(2) If any box, place or closed receptacle in any such conveyance be

locked, and the key be withheld, such officer shall report the same to the

appropriate officer, who may thereupon issue to the officer on board the

conveyance or to any other officer under his authority, a written order for search.

(3) On production of such order, the officer empowered thereunder may

require that any such box, place or closed receptacle be opened in his presence;

and if it be not opened upon his requisition, he may break open the same.

63. Sealing of conveyance.- Conveyances carrying transit goods for

destinations outside 1[Bangladesh] or goods from some foreign territory to a

1Subs. by Act XXII of 1980, s. 11 (1) (a), for "Pakistan", w.e.f. 1st July 1980.

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customs-station or from a customs-station to some foreign territory may be

sealed in such cases and in such manner as may be provided in the rules.

64. Goods not to be loaded or unloaded or water-borne except inpresence of officer.-Save where general permission is given under section 67 or

with permission in writing of the appropriate officer, no goods other than

passengers baggage or ballast urgently required to be loaded for the vessel's

safety, shall be shipped or water-borne to be shipped or discharged from any

vessel, in any customs-port, nor any goods except passenger baggage shall be

loaded in or unloaded from any conveyance other than a vessel at any land

customs-station or customs-airport except in the presence of an officer of

customs.

65. Goods not to be loaded or unloaded or passed on certain days or

at certain times.-Except with the permission of the appropriate officer and on

payment of such fees as may be prescribed by the Board no goods, other than

passengers baggage or mail bags, shall in any customs-port be discharged, or be

shipped or water-borne to be shipped or shall be loaded or unloaded or passed at

any land customs-station or customs-airport-

(a) on any public holiday within the meaning of the section 25 of

the Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (XXVI of 1881) or on any

day on which the discharge or shipping of cargo at customs-portor loading, unloading, passage or delivery of cargo at any land

customs-station or customs-airport, as the case may be, is

prohibited by the Board by notification in the official Gazette; or

(b) on any day except between such hours as the Board may, from

time to time, by a like notification, appoint.

66. Goods not to be loaded or unloaded except at approved places.-Save where general permission is given under section 67 or with permission in

writing of the appropriate officer, no imported goods shall be unloaded or goods

for export loaded at any place other than a place duly approved under clause (b)of section 10 for the unloading or loading of such goods.

67. Power to exempt from sections 64 and 66.- Notwithstanding

anything contained in section 64 or section 66, the Board may, by notification in

the official Gazette, give general permission for goods to be loaded at any

customs-station from any place not duly appointed for loading and without the

presence or authority of an officer of customs.

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68. Boat-note.-(1) When any goods are water-borne for the purpose of

being landed from any vessel and warehoused or cleared for home-consumption,

or of being shipped for exportation on board any vessel, there shall be sent, with

each boat-load or other separate despatch, a boat-note specifying the number of

packages so sent and the marks or number or other description thereof.

(2) Each boat-note for goods to be landed shall be signed by an officer of

the vessel, and likewise by the officer of customs on board, if any such officer be

on board, and shall be delivered on arrival to any officer of customs authorised to

receive the same.

(3) Each boat-note for goods to be shipped shall be signed by the

appropriate officer and, if an officer of customs is on board the vessel on which

such goods are to be shipped, shall be delivered to such officer, and if no such

officer be on board, shall be delivered to the master of the vessel or to an officer

of the vessel appointed by him to receive it.

(4) The officer of customs who receives any boat-note of goods landed,

and the officer of customs, master or other officer as the case may be, who

receives any boat-note of goods shipped, shall sign the same and note thereon

such particulars as the 1[Commissioner of Customs] may from time to time

direct.

(5) The Board may from time to time, by notification in the official

Gazette, suspend the operation of this section in any customs-port or part thereof.

69. Goods water-bone to be forthwith landed or shipped.-All goods

water-borne for the purpose of being landed or shipped shall be landed or

shipped without any unnecessary delay.

70. Goods not to be transhipped without permission.-Except in cases

of imminent danger, no goods discharged into or loaded in any boat for the

purpose of being landed or shipped shall be transhipped into any other boat

without the permission of an officer of customs.

71. Power to prohibit plying of unlicensed cargo-boats.- (1) The

Board may declare with regard to any customs-port, by notification in the official

Gazette, that, after a date therein specified, no boat not duly licensed and

registered shall be allowed to ply as a cargo-boat for the landing and shipping of

merchandise within the limits of such port.

1The words Collector of Customs were subs. by Act 12 of 1995, s. 5 (3), w.e.f. 1st. July 1995.

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(2) In any port with regard to which such notification has been issued, the1[Commissioner of Customs] or other officer whom the Board appoints in this

behalf, may, subject to rules and on payment of such fees as the Board may, by

notification in the official Gazette, prescribe, issue licences for and register

cargo-boats, or cancel the same.

72. Plying of ships of less than one hundred tons.- (1) Every boat

belonging to a 2[Bangladeshi] ship and every other vessel not exceeding one

hundred tons, shall be marked in such manner as may be prescribed by rules.

(2) Plying of all or any class or description of vessels of less than one

hundred tons, whether in sea or inland waters, may be prohibited or regulated orrestricted as to the purposes and limits of plying by rules.

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1The words Collector of Customs were subs. by Act 12 of 1995, s. 5 (3), w.e.f. 1st. July 1995.2Subs. by Act XIV of 1982, s. 11 (2), for "Pakistani", w.e.f. 1st July 1982.