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Indian customs imposing ‘unofficial’charge on Nepali exports

BHAIRAHAWA, JAN 13 - The Indian customs here has been creating hassles to Nepali exports including agriculture goods and imposing heavy ‘unofficial’ service charge to let the consignments pass through the customs.
"For Nepali exports, the Indian customs charges an average of Rs 5000 per truck," said Dr Shanta Kumar Sharma, Vice-President of Customs Clearance Agents Association (CCAA), Bhairahawa.
Even for the imports, the officials make transporters pay Rs 1000 for a truck irrespective of the genuineness of document ~ ~ tion, he added. "If the transporters did not bow down to their demand, the customs officials detain the vehicles citing reasons of ‘lack of document ~ ~ ’ and so on," he added.
While officials at Indian customs of Sunauli deny such charges, Chandra Man Shrestha, Secretary of Siddharthanagar Chambers of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) said that the Indian customs have been hindering exports by simply denying that the export goods are not the original products of Nepal.
"Unlike the past when quarantine used to be the major issue for creating obstacles, the customs officials at Sunauli these days cite a simple reason of ‘inadequate document ~ ~ tion’ to create problems," he added.
"So much so, they even decline to authenticate the Certificate of Origin (CoO) that Chamber issues here for the exports and inadvertently take service charges for the consignment to let through the Indian customs," he said.
The local traders further lamented that the Indian customs has also been obstructing the exports on the ground that Nepali exports are mainly the transshipment of third country products. And interestingly, such comments and hassles are made even on agriculture products like ginger that is produced locally.
"Although the export for ginger has been opened of late, it is also disturbed now and then," said Chamber officials.
The case is not limited to ginger though. The Indian government, from a week back, has barred the export of Nepali yellow lentils to India. "Worse part is that the officials there do not give reasons for imposing such ban," said Shrestha.
In a recent past, the Indian customs had hindered even the exports of soaps of Nepal lever Limited, among others. It had also seized export consignment worth Rs 1.5 million of JK Soap Factory, a local soap producer. The consignment was released after Allahabad Court gave verdict in favour of the factory.
"Cases like these happen more than frequently. It seems that discouraging the Nepali exports to India is the central policy of the Indian government," blamed Shrestha.
Although Nepal-India Trade Treaty allows duty free market access to Nepali products, India has been imposing non-tariff and para-tariff barriers to major Nepali exports. It has been imposing similar obstacle on vegetable ghee, the largest export of the country to India and pashmina, among others.
"Hindrances have been imposed on other handicrafts goods too," said Dhurba Prasad Pant, Chief at Bhairahawa Customs, conceding to India’s evil attitude to Nepali exports.
He further said that the Nepali customs have been repeatedly raising the problems to the Indian counterparts asking them to do away with these. "However, we are notified that such problems still continues irrespective of our request," he said.Posted on: 2004-01-14 04:00

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