The looting of the state exchequer in bright daylight can not happen under the watchful eye of both State and Central Government officials involved in managing and controlling export from this port. Are the officials committing a crime of omission by turning a Nelson’s eye to what was going on in the port? This scribe visited Tamabil on December 7th, 2011 and interviewed some of the truck drivers. One Leaderwell Dkhar said that the actual load the truck carries is 16 tons but when asked to produce documents for exporting coal to Bangladesh, the papers from the Meghalaya Directorate of Mineral Resources including the receipt from the weighbridge shows that the truck carries a shipment of 9 tons only. The load the trucks carry varies from one truck to another. Another driver R. Shylla informed that the real weigh his truck carries is 17 tons, another driver S. Dhar confided that the truck he drives carried 18 tons and some even claimed to carry 20 tons but in paper all the trucks which pass through the Tamabil land custom station carry only 9 tons. The 9 ton limit for the trucks to carry is as per the Honourable Supreme Court ruling and hence, in paper, the load all the trucks carry is within the limit specified by the Court. The pertinent question here is ‘What happens to the excess coal which did not appear in the books but was exported to Bangladesh anyway?’ The excess coal which will be of a minimum of 7 to 8 tons per truck via passes through the port right under the nose of the police and the customs officials.

The papers from the Meghalaya Directorate of Mineral Resources including the receipt from the weighbridge shows that the truck carries a shipment of 9 tons only

This scribe questioned the policeman and the custom officials who check and give the go ahead for the truck to proceed towards Bangladesh; as to why the trucks were allowed entry in spite of the fact that the trucks carried coal weighing more than the 9 tons limit specified by the Court order. The answer the policeman and the custom official gave was that their duty is to check whether the trucks have all papers in order or not and not to weigh the trucks. This writer then visited the office of the Inland Custom Station of the Indian Custom Office in Dawki and met Mr. B. Nongbri, Custom Officer who is in charge because the Superintendent Mr. M.K. Brahma is out of station. Replying to the question about the trucks violating the Court order, Mr. Nongbri clarified that the duty of the custom office is to facilitate trade through the port and also to ensure that contraband is not illegally smuggled into India. When asked if he is aware of the Supreme Court order which prohibited trucks carrying loads of more than 9 tons, the custom officer nodded his head and answered in the affirmative but added that it is the duty of the District Administration to see that the trucks are not overloaded beyond the permissible limit.

The excess coal which will be of minimum 7 to 8 tons per truck passed through the port right under the nose of the police and the customs officials.

The trucks transporting minerals from this port particularly coal, not only violate the Court order but the trade has also brought a huge loss to the country in the form of foreign exchange. The custom officer Mr. B. Nongbri also said that India is selling coal to Bangladesh at the rate of 50 US$ per ton and the average number of truck passing through the Tamabil port is 450 trucks per day.  The point to be noted here is that only 9 tons of coal per truck is legally exported to Bangladesh with proper documents and now the question ‘What happens to the amount of coal which does not appear in paper?’ arises. The truck driver Leaderwell Dkhar disclosed that the real weigh his truck carries is 16 tons and only 9 tons appeared in the export document. What happened to the excess 7 tons which did not appear in paper? Where has this coal disappeared? If one is to use a simple calculation to estimate the loss in foreign exchange from this illegal act, it will accrue to the tune of 157500 US$ (one hundred fifty seven and five hundred dollars) per day. The calculation is arrived at by taking into account that only 7 tons of coal is carried in excess by each truck and according to the custom officer, the number of trucks carrying coal to Bangladesh is an average of 450 trucks per day. At the cost of 50 US $ per ton, the total amount of foreign exchange lost comes to more than one hundred fifty thousand US$ per day and in a month the Central Government revenue lost in the form of foreign exchange is to the tune of 4725000 US$ (four million US$). This amount, converted to rupees (at the rate of Rs 45 to a $) comes to Rs 212625000 (twenty one crore per month). A staggering figure to say the least! It may be noted that the current conversion rate of the US$ is above Rs 45.

Each exporter is issued a letter of credit of 100 tons or so for every letter of credit and the cost of coal per ton as per letter of credit is 50 US$, but informed sources disclosed that in the real trade the exporters sell their coal at a rate higher than that mentioned in the letter of credit. Even on the 9 tons of coal as appearing in paper, the rate of coal which is sold in Bangladesh is much higher than the rate specified in the letter of credit. Here again the question is how does the excess money which does not appear in black and white, move from the importer to the exporter? When we speak of hawala and black money, is Dawki not a hotbed of such activities?

A former exporter (who requests anonymity) revealed that sometimes the importers paid the excess amount illegally in rupees through the driver of the truck and sometimes it was exchanged in gold. Mrs. Dolly Khonglah, an exporter of repute said that coal exporting from Tamabil Dawki started since the early eighties. Another exporter informed that before the Supreme Court order, the permissible capacity allowed was 15 tons; yet during those days too, trucks carried more than the permitted capacity. This means that the illegal practice of overloading trucks beyond the permissible limit has been going on for more than three decades. It also means that the amount of coal exported to Bangladesh from this port is more than what appears in paper, because there is an average excess of 7 tons of coal from each truck entering Bangladesh.

At the cost of 50 US $ per ton, the total amount of foreign exchange lost comes to more than one hundred fifty thousand US$ per day.

On December 8th 2011, a vernacular paper carried a news item of trucks exporting coal from Tamabil land custom station to Bangladesh violating the Supreme Court order and a few days later the Custom Office stopped the export of coal this port. More than 700 trucks were stranded on National Highway 40 (E) because the Custom officials refused to allow any trucks carrying more than the permissible limit to pass through the port.

In the evening of December 11th 2011; this scribe spoke to Mr. M.K Brahma Superintendent of Custom Tamabil Dawki, and asked him the reason the trucks were stranded. Mr. Brahma informed that his office has asked the trucks to unload the excess amount because they will not allow any trucks carrying more than 9 tons to pass through the Dawki port to Bangladesh. The next day this scribe again called Mr. M.K. Brahma to find out if there was any follow-up action to the problem. Mr. Brahma informed that an arrangement has been made with the exporters and their overloaded truck were allowed to pass on the condition that from the next Monday the Custom Office would maintain a strict vigil and no trucks carrying more than 9 tons would be allowed to pass through this port. However, in reality, this is not what happens. Till the time this article was written, trucks exporting coal to Bangladesh continue to carry more than 9 tons and the government officials continue to turn a blind eye to the illegal act that is going on day in and day out.

Meghalaya is also losing revenue in the form of royalty collected from coal produced by the state; royalty from minerals produced by the state is shared between the State Government and Jaintia Hills Autonomous District Council in the ratio of 60:40. The state is collecting royalty of `290 (rupees two hundred ninety) per ton from coal exported from the district but thanks to the illicit connivance of the government officials, the state is losing royalty of `2030 (rupees two thousand thirty) per truck because the 7 tons excess carried by every truck is not taxed because this 7 tons does not appear in paper.

It is also ironic that a port which trades in hundreds and thousands of dollars per day does not even have a proper weigh bridge. Till now, the measurement in done in archaic volume metric or cubic meter system, that too, in Bangladesh and not in India. A former exporter informed that till 1997 both the exporters and the importers conducted a joint measurement to ascertain the weight of the consignment and this continues in the Borsara LCS till date, but for reasons best know to the government officials in the port, the process was discontinued. That was made possible by BSF issuing a special identity card to the exporters or their representatives.

The export of minerals particularly coal from Tamabil Dawki Land Custom Station is in complete disarray, the government both State and Central should do something to address this problem and solve this quagmire. Is the Government listening?

H.H. Mohrmen

(Photos by Russel Nongrum)