Banke. The egg carton and plastic industries operating here are facing a shortage of raw materials as the waste products collected in Nepal are being illegally exported to India.
Punit Shah, the operator of the Western Egg Carat and Food Industry in Baijanath Rural Municipality-1 of Banke, said that Nepali industry is collapsing due to a lack of raw materials as entrepreneurs collect waste products (used paper books, iron, tin, plastic, etc.) and illegally export them to India to avoid falling under the tax net.
‘The industry is unable to operate due to the smuggling of raw materials required for the industry to India. Even though the raw materials are being illegally exported to India, the regulatory body has not shown any interest,’ he said. ‘The industry cannot operate fully due to the lack of raw materials. Due to this, the workers are not getting work, the industry is collapsing.’
He says that when the related bodies are illegally exporting the Kawad products to India every day, which have a customs rate of five to 10 rupees per kg, and they are avoiding the regulation, it is affecting the Nepali industry.
‘My industry needs 120 tons of raw materials per month, but now I am only getting half of it, so there is no environment to fully operate the industry,’ said the operator Shah. ‘If the Kawad products collected in this area were not illegally exported to India, the raw materials would be available in sufficient quantities, but the state bodies have been ignoring it.’
The Kawad products collected in Banke and other districts are purchased and sold. He complains that industries operating in various districts, including Banke, which pay taxes to the state and also create jobs, have been forced to close down after not being able to purchase scrap iron used as raw materials.
Although used scrap iron is purchased in Nepal, other items such as paper, books, stationery, plastic products, batteries, aluminum, etc. have been smuggled to India. Although there is a customs revenue fee of Rs 10 per kg on the export of scrap iron, it has been found that entrepreneurs are illegally exporting it to India by evading customs.
Since Indian industrialists purchase scrap iron at a somewhat higher rate, Nepali scrap iron entrepreneurs are illegally exporting it to India by evading customs. Daily cycle products are exported to India.
Shah says that since a large portion of the collected products is exported, the industries here are forced to import the same products again at double the price. There are more than a hundred industries from Bhairahawa to Dhangadhi that use products related to products as raw materials.
There are around 20 products entrepreneurs in Banke. Mohammad Umar Halwai, chairman of the Kawad Business Association, Banke, said that the Kawad-related industry has stopped getting raw materials after some of them started collecting and storing Kawad from other districts along with Banke and sending it to India.
‘As Ambe Steel here purchases steel Kawad at the same price as the Indian traders, it is not exported to India. Other paper and plastic Kawads are exported because their prices are higher in India,’ he said. ‘Not all businessmen export to India on their own, Indian traders buy in collusion with Kawad collectors.’
Hariprasad, operator of Amuwa Plastic Industries, an industry in Siyari Rural Municipality-4 of Rupandehi that processes plastic Kawads and makes plastic pellets Neupane said that although his industry requires seven tons of kuwad daily, now he is getting only one ton.
‘We were dependent on the West, kuwad has stopped coming after Asoj, sometimes even one truck comes, in this situation we have barely been able to run the industry for 15 days’ he said, ‘It is not that we should get kuwad, but if we want to export to India, we should only take it after paying taxes, the trend of open smuggling should be stopped.’
The export of kuwad in Banke, which has a 65-kilometer open border with India, has resulted in loss of revenue and industries in various districts including Banke that use it as raw material have gone bankrupt. Along the Nepal-India border, the auxiliary checkpoints of Banke, including Khadaicha, Hiriminiya, Kalabanjar, Jamuna, Jayaspur, Pachpokhara, Saigaun, Badhaiya, Sainik, are considered major for smuggling.
The Armed Police Force has been deployed in these places to control border security and smuggling. Armed Police Force No. 30 Bageshwori Battalion Chief, Armed Police Superintendent Shobha Kant Khanal, said that the Armed Police Force is making efforts to prevent the illegal smuggling of junk goods.
He mentioned that necessary instructions have been given for control as smuggling can occur through rural checkpoints even if it is not exported from the main border checkpoint. Nepalgunj Customs Office Chief Janardan Poudel said that preventing the smuggling of smuggled goods has become a challenge.
Mentioning that smuggled goods coming to the main customs checkpoint are being seized and auctioned, Customs Chief Poudel said, “If we are to prevent the smuggling of smuggled goods, the customs office itself will become a smuggling house. The auction of the smuggled goods we have taken under control should be approved by Nepali industrialists, otherwise, instead of an auction, the smuggled goods will be stuck at customs and will be bought again by Indian traders.”
He mentioned that necessary instructions have been given to customs officials to prevent the smuggling of smuggled goods, considering the complaints of Nepali industrialists.
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्