Govt to ask India to withdraw additional lock

KATHMANDU, Aug 5: The government has objected India´s move to unilaterally impose additional lock on third country containers in transit to Nepal and initiated steps to officially ask the southern neighbor to lift the system that it enforced from Monday.



“We will immediately take diplomatic recourse and request India to withdraw the additional lock on containers transporting third country imports to Nepal," said Vijay Kumar Yadav, newly appointed Minister for Commerce and Supplies (MoCS).[break]



Talking to Republica, he even tagged India´s decision to implement additional lock as ´unfortunate´ step, particularly, as Nepal had repeatedly voiced its protest against any such move saying it would invite additional hassles for Nepal´s overseas trade.



Nepali officials have been arguing that the imposition of additional lock on the containers with goods in transit would be against trade facilitation as promised by bilateral transit treaty. The spirit of the bilateral treaty is to lessen documentation and facilitate Nepal´s third country trade through one-time lock system.



Under the new system, Indian customs officials can unlock any container already sealed at Kolkata port at any time and place during the transportation of goods. Traders have been staging protest at the Kolkata route against the new system which, they say, would create unnecessary hassles and delay the delivery because of repeated checking by Indian officials.



“Longer transport time and consequently higher transport cost would certainly drive up the prices of goods in Nepali market,” said a trader.



“The new system gives discretionary power to Indian officials to open seal of containers at any time and place, and if this authority is misused, Nepali traders have to face host of problems while delivering goods to Nepal,” said a trader who has been importing agricultural goods from overseas countries.



India had already given an indication about applying additional lock system in Kolkata port after Nepali officials, during the Inter-Governmental Sub-Committee (IGSC) meeting in New Delhi few months back, agreed to accept double lock system in the newly opened Vishakhapatnam Port.



Nepal had agreed in principle to impose additional lock at the new port mainly considering the distance between Vishakhapatnam and Birgunj, the Nepali border point, which is more than double the distance between Kolkata and Birgunj. However, instead of bringing the Vishakhapatnam port into operation, India enforced the provision at the Kolkata port increasing the woes of Nepali importers.

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