Bangladesh is all set to introduce digital passport or e-passport after Eid-ul-Azha holidays in an effort to ease immigration formalities and check irregularities.
According to the passport department sources, the e-passport will be announced on August 7, just after Prime Minister home returning.
However, the inauguration of e-passport service is expected after the Eid-ul-Azha holidays.
Security services department of the Home Ministry issued a circular in this regard. The circular was published at Home Ministry website. However, the date for issuing e-passport is yet to be announced.
According to the circular signed by Munim Hassan, Joint Secretary of the ministry, the general fee of 48-page e-passport with 5-year validity is Tk 3,500 for Bangladesh applicants, emergency delivery fee is Tk 5,500 and extra emergency delivery fee is Tk 7,500.
The fees set for e-passport with 10-year validation to cost Tk 5000 for general delivery, the emergency delivery fee is Tk 7000 and extra emergency delivery fee is Tk 9,000.
The passports will be available on five days in case of urgent, 7 days for the emergency issue and 20 days in case of general passport application.
The statement also includes deadlines for re-issuing of an old or expired passport. In case of an urgent passport will be given within 2 days, emergency passport within 3 days and a normal passport within 7 days.
According to the circular, the e-passport application form should be filled according to the National Identity Card (NID) or Birth Registration Certificate (BRC). Applicant aged (under 6) who do not have a National Identity Card (NID), his / her Parent Identification Number (NID) must be specified.
The decision on introducing digital passport comes less than a decade after Bangladesh switched from manual passport to the machine-readable passport or MRP.
The government took the initiative to introduce e-passports in the wake of more than one passport being illegally issued against one person in the absence of database of fingerprints of citizens.