Friday, November 29, 2013

Nathula border trade season closes on a high

EXPORTS SOAR TO Rs. 7.84 CRORE; IMPORTS RECORDED AT Rs. 1.16 CR
GANGTOK, 28 Nov: The seventh season of Border Trade over the Nathula this year has been the most productive one thus far. Border trade closed for the season today in light of the winter season which has set in and will resume in May 2014.
The closing ceremony today featured a colourful function at the border mart of Sherathang which was attended by traders from both sides of the border. This season, trade closed two days ahead of the scheduled time, i.e 30 November, since the last two days of this month are non-trading days.
This season saw over Rs. 7.84 crore worth of goods being exported to China with the figure till 27 November coming to Rs. 7,84,96,435. Last year Indian goods worth Rs. 6.06 crore were exported to Tibetan Autonomous Region.
Exports include goods sold directly at Rinchengang in TAR by Sikkim traders as well as goods sold at the Sherathang trademart to traders coming in from TAR. In fact, in the month of September this year, Sikkim traders exported goods worth Rs. 1.40 crore over Nathula and imported Rs. 21.14 lakhs worth of goods despite inclement weather and road blocks due to landslides on the way to the border.
There has been a slight increase in imports this year with figures crossing the Rs 1 crore mark. While last year imports amounted to Rs 1 crore, this year imports from TAR amounted to Rs 1.16 crore.
These figures include Chinese goods at the Sherathang trade mart as well as those brought in by Sikkim traders from Rinchengang, the trade mart on the Tibetan side of the border. Sikkim traders have imported primarily three items - carpets, readymade garments and blankets & quilts in September.
On the last day of trade today, there were as many as 60 trucks from Tibet which crossed over to Sherathang and about 50 vehicles from Sikkim travelled to the other side. This last week has seen a large number of TAR traders crossing over to engage in trade. On an average, there were between 150 to 180 Tibetan traders coming over every day compared to 50–60 Indian traders moving to the other side.
Besides this, Chinese Customs officer, Li-Ping along with traders crossed the border today while the Indian side was represented by Customs department officials, Secretary Commerce & Industries Deptt, PT Euthenpa, Joint Secretary Sumitra Pradhan along with officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Industries.

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