Nepali markets record more business after strict customs rules

Crowd in frontier Nepali markets has thickened after the government introduced a new provision lowering the minimum amount for mandatory filing of brief customs declaration while importing goods.

About three months back, the Department of Customs (DoC) had imposed a compulsory provision of brief customs declaration in the imports exceeding Rs 100 through land customs and Rs 5,000 through Tribhuwan International Airport in an effort to discourage leakage in customs revenue.

Businessmen said the crowd of customers has shored up in bordering towns including Butwal, Bhairawa and adjoining urban towns with the enforcement of new rules that has brought down the number of Nepali buyers and consumers who used to import goods in small quantities to avoid customs duty.

“We are encouraged with the consolidation of business in our market as small customers have stopped visiting Indian markets for shopping,” said Upendra Shrestha, proprietor of Kanchan Stores at Traffic Chowk of Butwal. Shrestha said business in local markets has gone up by at least 25-30 percent over three months.

Mohan Shrestha, proprietor of Moon Enterprises in Butwal, demanded that the government make the new customs rules more effective in coming days.

Customers said consumers goods are cheaper in the Nepali markets compared to Indian markets. “Indian shopkeepers are selling sugar at cheaper rates but other goods are far dearer than in the Nepali market,” said Sabitra Acharya, local customer in Butwal.

Nepal businessmen have been complaining that unchecked import of goods from Indian markets at cheaper prices hindered the business in bordering towns.

Shankar Shrestha, president of Butwal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Nepali customers have been cheated with inferior quality goods in the name of cheap prices and demanded that customs be made more efficient.

Officials at Bhairawa Customs Office said the number of customers frequenting to Indian market for shopping has come down by over 50 percent following the introduction of the strict customs rules. Lured by cheaper prices of goods, large number of customers in frontier areas as well as Arghakhanchi, Gulmi, Palpa and Syangja used to go bordering markets in India.

Sunauli Byapar Mandal, an association of traders in Sunauli, had recently submitted a memorandum to Bhairawa Customs Office requesting to scrap the new provision as that has affected the business in bordering Indian markets.

However, customs officials said they are preparing to set up a separate desk to for effectively enforcing the newly-introduced rules that, they say, would help bring down the leakage in customs revenue.