Jhapa. India has stopped plywood produced in Nepal at the border. The Panitanki Customs Office in India, Raniganj, stopped 34 trucks carrying plywood, said Khem Prasai, president of the Mechi Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The trucks had gone to India from the Kakadbhitta border two weeks ago. Prasai informed that the Indian Customs Office stopped the Nepali goods saying that they did not have a Bureau of Indian Certificate (BIS).
BIS is the quality certificate of the Indian government. After India imposed new rules that imported goods must be BIS certified, the export of plywood, cement and other products from Nepal has been disrupted. Not only Kakadbhitta, but also plywood exported from other Nepalese border points to India is being blocked by India.
‘Those trucks carrying plywood from Nepal to India have been stopped at the Indian customs in Panitanki,’ said Chairman Prasai, who has neither allowed them to leave nor is it possible to return them to their homeland.’ Prasai said that the Indian customs are warning that the goods will be confiscated if they are not returned to Nepal immediately. The Nepali side has stated that it has also paid GST tax to the Indian government for the export of those goods.
80 plywood industries have been established in Nepal. Industrialists say that a minimum investment of Rs 250 million is required to establish an industry. It is said that if the Indian side does not remove the obstacles at the border, billions of investments in the plywood industry will be at risk and thousands of jobs will be lost. In the fiscal year 2080/81, plywood worth Rs 7.43 billion was exported from Nepal to India. In the fiscal year 2079/80, plywood worth Rs 4.7 billion and in the fiscal year 2078/79, plywood worth Rs 35 billion was exported to India.
Rishi Timsina, former president of the Mechi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that India is causing huge economic losses to the country due to customs barriers on cement and plywood, which are the most exported products from Nepal. Timsina suggests that the government should reach a high-level agreement with the Indian government to create an environment for its unhindered export, as plywood is based on Nepali raw materials and contributes significantly to reducing the trade deficit. After the Indian customs barriers were not removed, the plywood industry has started reducing the working hours of workers. According to Timsina, plywood factories that used to operate 24 hours a day are now operating for barely eight hours.
The Mechi Chamber of Commerce and Industry has written to the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry to take the initiative to resolve the issue, demanding that the plywood export ban be lifted. The federation is in talks with the Nepalese government, the Foreign Minister and the Indian Embassy, said Prasai, the president of the federation. “We have said that plywood exports should not be stopped under any circumstances,” Prasai said. “It has been a year since the Nepali industry applied for BIS. So far, neither the certificate has been issued nor the customs have been opened.”
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